The Demon Among Angels
by Don Socrates
Summary: Nobody quite knew how to react when they saw their beloved Hero become as much of a monster as those who surrounded him. He'd slaughtered them all and come out of it nearly dead, covered in wounds that could be healed, save for the black scar of his palm. The scar that stole him from Olympus before they could force immortality upon him.
1. Chapter 1 - The Mark

**Chapter 1 – The Mark**

Percy Jackson had saved Olympus not once, but twice. There was always a cost that came hand in hand with achieving such triumphant cases of success.

He was a defender, that was all there was to it.

He was a savior, that was all there was to it.

He was a hero, but was that really all there was to it?

Percy Jackson was broken, beaten, bruised, and utterly battered. He'd fought his way through hordes of monsters. He'd lost count of truly how many he'd slaughtered after an hour of fighting. Most of the Gods had been regarding him strangely ever since the end of the war had come within their grasp. Hushed whispers from the denizens of Olympus had reached his ears with each passing second and yet each word had felt like hollow echoes that went in one ear and right out the other. He cared not for such hushed rumours, he hadn't even cared enough to listen to what they were all saying but he did know that they were talking about him and it wasn't in a manner that one would expect after saving Olympus.

Percy had been devoid of emotion and energy, everything was fading in and out with the rhythmic throbbing of pain that was searing across the palm of his hand.

He had no idea when he'd gotten it, but he knew it hadn't been there before the battle. A long- stretching wound that reached from his index finger to the other side of his wrist, dragging diagonally across his palm. It looked like it had been a cut, the kind that was wide and deep enough to have once been an entire sword sticking through his hand yet there was no damage to the other side of his hand and the wound was already closed. The only reason he knew that it was wrong, out of place, dangerous even... Was the fact that the scarred flesh over the top of it was scratched and almost pure black.

His right hand was sore, it ached from the weight of Anaklusmos after hours of fighting monsters, losing his mind to the point where the only thing he registered was the weight of riptide in his hands.

There were other demi-gods with him, some in front, some behind. He barely registered the fact that Annabeth was standing loyally by his side. He almost felt like he was betraying her with just how little he felt connected to the world. What the Hades was that scar on his hand? It never physically showed signs that it was moving but he could feel the ebb and flow of something hiding behind that scar. He wasn't expecting an alien to suddenly pop out of it, no, it was more like a physical manifestation of raw power that was building up within his scarred skin.

Percy subconsciously rubbed his free hand across the sore flesh. There would no doubt be some questions but he wasn't sure he could actually answer any of them. There they were walking towards the Olympian throne room, no doubt to be honored ceremoniously for their brave actions but the problem was that Percy couldn't remember anything that happened. It was all totally a blur in his mind. One moment he'd been uncharacteristically excited before the battle had begun and the next thing that he was consciously aware of was kneeling amidst a literal sea of monster dust. His body covered in cuts, his arms heavy and his mind dull. His senses were barely connected to him anymore but he would never forget seeing the faces of all of his friends looking at him like HE was some kind of monster.

What had he done for them to have seen him in such a way? They all knew that he was powerful, more so even than Jason Grace, the son of Jupiter, but he could see the sense of true fear in their eyes when they looked at him.

Is that what he really was? A monster to them all. The throne room, the grand doors stood taller than he remembered, or perhaps he was simply feeling small because of the loss of his senses. His energy was down to zero after the fight, he could barely walk then let alone now when he was practically being held up by Frank.

Dried blood covered most of his face and nearly all of his body, who's blood it was, he didn't know, only that some of it was probably his, the fresher patches that still felt hot and sticky as opposed to cold, dry, and flaky.

A sharp flash of pain erupted behind his eyes, light illuminated inside his head and he got a glimpse of the battlefield. It must have been halfway through the battle because there were still plenty of forces from either side, bravely fighting on against one another. He got a clear image from behind someone else's eyes of his smashing a Minotaur's face in with the blunt hilt of Anaklusmos. The force piled behind his strike was terrifying.

From this one mental flashback, he could clearly see his own face, an insane snarl on his lips and eyes of power, practically glowing amidst the harsh contrast of the bloody battlefield. Monster's broken bodies all flowing into dust and then the son of Poseidon never once faltering amidst hundreds of enemies. Both of his sea green eyes brutally vibrant.

Percy was ripped back into reality when gravity had suddenly become a thing again. It felt like all of his senses had once again become incredibly sharp before fading away. Was this what dying felt like? He was sure that it was, nothing else could compare to being this painful.

It hadn't taken them long before they were finally all standing in front of the Olympian council. Percy was too proud to let Frank hold him in place, not when he was under the gaze of the Gods. He'd just been the one to save them for the second time, he'd die before appearing weak under their gazes after all he had done.

He saw the same look on the faces of the Gods as he did on the others when he'd come out of his battle haze. He stood, gritted teeth and a hand on his ribs. He was sure that he'd broken them during the battle.

The honorary titling and awards had gone on for what had felt like an eternity before his name was finally called out. He was the last one and by the Gods he was relieved that this was nearly over. He just wanted to sleep for eternity.

Slowly, Percy limped forwards before trying to kneel before Zeus but what had actually happened was something a lot less intended. His knees both slammed into the ground, one hand was all he had left to stop his body and face from making a blood stain on the marble floor.

"Lord Zeus." He slowly coughed out before rearing his body up and resting his hind on the back of his feet. The demi-gods seemed to be feeling his pain as he heard them squirm uncomfortably from behind him. They couldn't believe that no one had ordered a healer, or even Apollo himself, to take a loot at Percy. He almost appeared to be on death's doors himself.

"Perseus Jackson..." Zeus' voice boomed indifferently. There was no hiding the fact that the King of the Gods absolutely hated his nephew, as did most of the Olympian council, but there was one thing that was undeniably common between everyone in attendance. They respected Percy. All he'd wanted was normality and yet he was thrust into the middle of almost all battles in the name of defending Olympus.

"For your actions, you are being awarded Godhood." He continued. The demi-gods shifted uncomfortably. They all knew that he didn't want that, he never wanted Godhood.

"I cannot-" Percy coughed blood, his head felt light and the room began to twist around his vision, "Accept such a gift. I'm honored, but-" Percy had to once again brace himself against the ground. This shouldn't have been happening, sure he'd overexerted himself but that was war. He didn't think he'd been hit so critically anywhere on his body so why did he feel like his existence was being torn apart from within? He spared a single glance towards his hand before trying one again to focus on the King of the Gods through his strained gaze.

"Stubborn fool. I was not making you an offer, Perseus, I am telling you what's happening. That mark on your hand wasn't there before the battle. It's preventing anyone from healing you and it's killing you. Godhood is the only way that you'll survive this day." Zeus announced angrily. He couldn't possibly throw it back in their faces after all was said and done. The lightning God's pride had been hurt by Percy a few times before but nothing would be worse if he denied him once again.

Percy screamed, clutching at his wrist. The pain was searing all across his palm, it felt unbearable. "What the hell happened to me?" He whispered, unaware and uncaring whether or not anyone else had heard him. He felt the ground shake slightly where footsteps were approaching him and before he knew it, Poseidon was by his side, holding onto his shoulders with a comforting grip.

"During the battle, no one could get near you, it was like someone had put up a barrier that only monsters could pass through... And, well..." Poseidon wasn't sure how to explain this to his son, he knew that whatever words he had would only worsen the situation in Percy's mind.

"You slaughtered every single monster with so much ease and sheer malice that you became the biggest one there." Ares pitched in, realizing that there was a need for his bluntness. He had no problem being the villain here but it was still something that the boy needed to hear. "People are scared of you, kid. There's no avoiding it, you're a damned Demon on the battlefield." Ares explained, shrugging at the annoyed looks he received from a few Goddesses.

They might not have all liked Percy but they respected him, and they could all understand why the demi-gods were feeling what they were feeling towards the son of Poseidon.

Slowly but surely, his breathing had returned to normal, he'd even found the strength to stand on his own. He held his head high, a look of pure determination sat on his face. "How about this." He began. Artemis sat on her throne in silence, she had to hand it to him that he was certainly powerful. She hadn't been as close to him as some of the other Gods but make no mistake she was still wearily watching him as much as everyone else. Ares might not have usually been tactful or ever had a way with words but 'Demon' was something that she couldn't help but agree with.

Percy was unusual, an anomaly even. His existence was something that she wasn't sure they could conclude was entirely just a demi-god. He was a 'monster', plain and simple, that much was obvious from the way that he'd been teetering on the verge of unconsciousness the whole time and yet here he was, seemingly recuperating his strength with each passing second.

"I continue living as mortal for the rest of the day. If it looks like I'm going to die before midnight strikes, then you can immortalize me, but if I can pull myself back from the brink of death, then you leave me mortal and respect my decision to not become a God." Percy announced, pushing himself to his knees. His hand was trembling, arms shaking from the pain that was shooting through his fist.

He continued to hold his stare with the King of the Gods who was seriously considering this. Poseidon had silently returned to his throne. What was Percy thinking!? If Apollo had decreed that he would die from his wounds by the end of the day then he was in no place to argue! How he was even standing was beyond his father's comprehension.

"It would be foolish to accept your terms. You're not even aware of the process necessary to bestow Godhood, if you were to perish close to midnight, we might not be able to save you." Zeus announced, extremely unhappy that Perseus would have the gall to even argue with him over Godhood when he was practically dying at his feet. Zeus was questioning who truly held the power out of the two of them.

Percy looked around wearily. He could feel the pull of power in his hand. Whatever the Hades it was, it didn't want what the Gods were offering, that much was evident from the way he felt guarded by the power building up inside his body. The Gods weren't going to give up, he realized that they cared less about his safety than about how powerful he really was. That was what they wanted from him, to immortalize him and prevent him from destroying them, not that he ever would but they didn't know that.

Percy could see that this conversation with the Gods was linear, it was always going to reach the same conclusive point. ' _Run.'_ Percy heard a strange voice whisper inside his mind, it wasn't like when a God had spoken to him, it wasn't clear, he wasn't even sure that he'd heard anything, it was more a feeling of danger that was looming over him. Slowly, he turned his back on the King of the Gods and faced Annabeth.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, keeping his eyes locked with hers. Zeus slowly smiled, in his mind he believed that this was Perseus' way of finally accepting Godhood. Little did he know of the true tenacity the son of Poseidon was capable of in situations outside the battlefield.

"But I must insist on standing my ground." His voice was dark, deeper than before and held such immense wrath inside that it sent chills down the spines of the Gods who sat in trepidation when they saw Percy raise his hand.

What was he doing? He had no idea, it was all purely instinct when he felt like it would be a good idea. He opened his hand when a sudden surge of force ran through his arm. That scar on his palm lit up like a God revealing their true form. Blow wisps of vapor shot out and flowed around his arm beautifully. He couldn't explain what was going on. He had such a peculiar feeling of someone else taking control of his body. Only his mind felt like it was his own, watching from behind closed eyes as everything unfolded around him.

"I love you." He whispered when his eyes were finally locked with Annabeth's stormy grey irises. So analytical about everything and yet they didn't help her at all when she was powerless to stop the forces that be from taking her boyfriend away from her.

"Stop this at once Perseus!" Zeus and Poseidon both boomed in perfect synchronization as they both stood. Something far beyond himself was happening. The throne room rumbled from the sheer power that was erupting from Percy's palm. It was painful but nowhere near as much as before.

"I have something to say." He announced, backing up slightly from all of the Gods who were now on their feet. Some didn't know whether they should have been trying to capture Percy, restrain him entirely or just kill him. Few were brave enough to even contemplate the latter with the amount of strange blue energy that was flowing around his body.

"It's better to burn out than to fade away!" His voice echoed around the throne room as everything had stopped all at once. The shaking faltered to nothing, the sound of silence filled the air and the room felt like there was more space in it. Of course, that was only partly true. There was more space in the throne room because where Percy had been standing there was now just an empty spot with the blood stains he'd left behind.

Chaos exploded into the throne room in the forms of people crying, shouting and fighting. Where had their hero gone? Apollo looking into the distance with an uninterrupted focus, he wouldn't be gone forever, not from what Apollo could see, no, there was still much to be done by the Hero of Olympus.

 **Line Break.**

Percy awoke to the pain in his hand. It felt like he'd been struck in the face with a cattle prod. Where was he? The whole place was white. White ceiling, white columns that held up said ceiling. There were no walls or doors, just a room with a ceiling and some thin material draped down, presumably to act as some sort of curtain, not that it was particularly working. Outside the room Percy could see a bleak distance of more white, luckily it seemed that there was some kind of azure sky sitting comfortably above him. At least he wasn't already dead.

"Ah, you've awoken, good afternoon." He heard a decidedly British accent call out to him. Quickly turning to face the owner of the voice he saw something that was headache worthy. The only other person he'd seen so far was wearing clothes that contrasted so massively with the white architecture that he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Black shin high boots that met some trousers of the same color. He wore a ripped black t-shirt that barely held enough space for the muscles of his upper body. It looked like his entire attire had seen better days with rips and holes that looked like they'd been earned through intense archery battles. He had a small brown stubble on his almost gaunt face. Percy wasn't sure whether his face was actually 'gaunt' or whether he just had sharp features but it was hard to tell when the stubble perfectly outlined said features. Short brown hair rested messily atop the man's head that he casually ran a hand through as he sighed and met Percy's gaze with powerful golden eyes.

"Um..." Percy responded neutrally. Where was he? And just who the Hades was the man with golden eyes? He seemed to notice the discomfort from the man who'd only just awoken with the mark on his palm.

"Are you usually this articulate? Never mind, that's more or less the same reaction that everyone has when they wake up here." He sighed somewhat before scratching his chin. Had he forgotten what he'd actually come here for?

"Oh, that's right. Here, drink this, you'll feel better." He said, closing the distance between them and handing Percy a clear glass of some golden liquid. He slowly accepted it and tried to pick up a scent of what it was. He doubted that they'd go through this much effort just to poison him. They could have killed him while he was passed out on the... Chair that he didn't remember sitting in?

"What is it, nectar?" He asked before taking a sip. His eyes went wide slightly. The scent of alcohol wafted through his nose before he stopped himself from drinking more. He wasn't about to spit the beer out over the clean floor but he didn't want any more of it.

"Nah, it's beer, good beer, so if you don't want it, I'll have it." He said, noticing the estranged look Percy was giving him. He'd just woken up in a strange place and the first person he'd met had offered him a beer.

"Who are you, where am I, and why did you give me beer?" Percy listed off. He was in a strange place after possibly causing an explosion in the Olympian throne room, he needed, no, he deserved some answers and right now the only one who was capable of giving him answers was the man in front of him.

"I," He said, pointing to himself before drinking at least half of the beer in the glass, "Am known as many different things but to you, I guess I'm going to be the one who trains you. I really don't mind what you call me, you can choose." He shrugged, careless to all of it. "This place." He pointed lazily before sinking the rest of the beer in one go. He licked his lips pleasurably before putting the glass on a white table that Percy swore wasn't there seconds ago.

"Probably has an official name but no one has ever told me. The people in this place, like yourself, have at one point shown themselves as individuals with enough resolve to bear the mark." Slowly his lifted his right hand to show that he had an identical black scar across his palm.

"And finally, why WOULDN'T I give you beer? Beer is amazing, you're stupid to turn down a free drink." He smiled at himself, offering another shrug of his shoulders. Why anybody would ever do that was beyond him but perhaps that had something to do with the life he'd led before coming here.

"Look, this is all a bit much, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to process this. Are you in charge of this place then?" Percy sighed, looking back towards the British man.

"I suppose so. I'm not the creator of this place, I'm just the one who gets given the orders. I'm to train you to be as strong as possible, that's all I've been told. I get the feeling that if everything goes as planned that we'll be told to defend the world against something stupid. That's usually how things go. Come on hot-shot, we can walk and talk." He said, motioning to the stairs that were hidden behind his tall frame.

Percy internally sighed, this day had been hard enough as it was but now he was sure that this was going to be just as mentally straining as that battle had been physically. Strangely enough, now that he was awake he felt better than ever. He was confused by the situation he was in but physically he felt back at one hundred percent.

"Will I be able to go back home?" Percy asked quietly. He'd followed the British man down the stairs that led to a large courtyard. There were more colors now that they were out of the building. It seemed that it was just the architecture that was whitewashed.

"This IS your home now kiddo, but yeah, you will get to go back eventually. We live here, we train here but everything that we train for happens on Earth." The man told him. He slowed his march slightly and before Percy knew it, they were standing on a long balcony that overlooked a huge pit. There were numerous people fighting below the high stone walls they were standing on.

"I should probably mention that time moves a lot slower here than it does for Earth. When we go back, little will have changed from each time we come and go. You could spend years training here and it might only be a couple of weeks back there. It differs so I can't exactly give you an exact estimate. Accidentally jumped a couple of years last time I went home." The man sighed mischievously.

"How old are you?" Percy asked. He could see little in the way of aging on the man but just from the way he spoke, there was volumes of wisdom in his tone. He laughed somewhat, almost as thought he'd been expecting this sooner.

"Ah, yeah, about that. Look, kid, I know what the specifics of your life are so I need you to remember that I don't choose who has the mark..." There was a brief moment of silence that followed the man's words as he looked down at the people fighting in the pit before casting his golden gaze back to Percy.

"I don't really know how old I am. I'm one of the first of us to get the mark, you see... Those of us with the mark are outside the confines of time, we're immortal, pal." He explained. Percy's world came to a standstill. After everything he'd done he was still forced into immortality anyway. He could see the sadness in the British man's eyes, immortality was never a gift, it was a curse unless you had an immortal family to help keep you together. So he'd have to leave Annabeth behind after all. The silence was echoing all around his head, he was certain that he'd actually been able to hear his own heart breaking.

"And what is it we're training for?" Percy let himself indulge in watching the people fighting below them. There weren't a lot, not as many as he'd thought there would be from the way the British man had been talking.

"Well, things here and there that the current defenders of the world can't take on. Things that some people, even gifted ones like the people we used to be, can't even see. That reminds me, who were you in your past life? I heard that you were some big shot or something." The British man slowly turned his back to the arena below them, instead opting for folding his arms and staring into the distance on the other side of the two-story white building.

"I saved the world when I stopped a Titan and then again when I killed... Um, the Earth." Percy was still fairly groggy and wasn't sure how he should have phrased it.

"You... Killed the Earth?" The man couldn't help but grin and raise an eyebrow at his new apprentice of sorts. He could already tell that pranks on this one would be a barrel of laughs.

"Not THE Earth but, like, the Earth, look, it's complicated but I basically forced the spirit of the Earth back into an eternal sleep." Percy realized that it was quite possible that he knew who Gaea was, as well as all of the rest of them.

"Right, so you were the one who shut Gaea up, right? That makes you that son of Poseidon, you're taller than I thought you'd be." He shrugged for the who knows how many times since Percy had awoken.

"Funny, usually people say the opposite. Yeah, I'm the son of Poseidon." Percy sighed, realizing that there would be a hunt for him happening as they spoke. He was sure that with him being here, Artemis would be ordered to lead the forefront of tracking Percy down and that with her not being able to find him, she'd only begin to hate him more than she already did. Not that he was entirely sure that she hated him in the first place, but he knew better than to test her on that.

"You _were_ the son of Poseidon. You're an Angel now." He scratched his stubble again. Social interaction with new people probably wasn't his strong point but judging by the amount of people down in that arena, if that was all of them then he hadn't needed a reason to hone those skills.

"An Angel? You call yourselves Angels? Seems pretty clichéd." Percy chuckled dryly. He honestly cared not for any of this, he was fine with facing the wrath of angry Gods if it meant he'd be hunted down by them, they wanted to force immortality upon him yet it hadn't changed a thing as he was already immortal, by whoever had chosen to give him that mark.

"We go and fight the things that even your Gods can't comprehend, so yes, we're Angels. If you've got a better name for yourself then by all means, go ahead and call yourself something else." He offered, clearly not caring for the specifics of it all. Out of nowhere, he seemed to have pulled another glass of beer and began to happily chug at it. What was his thing with alcohol?

"In that last fight... Even the Gods called me a Demon." Percy breathed slowly. That had to be some kind of coincidence right? In his pantheon, that was the first and only time he'd ever heard anyone actually say the word 'Demon'. It had to be a coincidence...

"Listen, I said call yourself anything but certain things have to be earned. In a group of immortals that protect the world and call themselves Angels, you're going to have to prove to them that you're the Demon among Angels." That was the first time so far that Percy had seen him be serious about anything. When Percy looked down to see what he was pointing at, he realized that everyone below him had stopped fighting, instead, they were all just looking up at him, seemingly expecting him to do something.

"I have to fight them?" He asked, looking around at them. Their weapons screamed danger, he wasn't even sure that Anaklusmos would be able to do anything in the way of defending against those kinds of materials. Some were pure black, others white, and one of them seemed to be an odd composition of both.

"Guess so, training starts now rookie. Oh, one more thing, I said you can call me anything, but my actual name is Cain. Time to see if you're worthy of being called Demon." Cain smiled evilly before pushing Percy over the side of the wall and down into the arena. The drop wasn't high and certainly not large enough to cause Percy even the slightest amount of discomfort.

"Which one am I supposed to be fighting?" He shouted up at Cain, slowly feeling around his pockets for something that he knew should have been there. Within seconds he was holding Anaklusmos. It was comforting to know that no matter where he went, so did the sword.

"All of them. A Demon could easily break down any amount of Angels, don't you think?" Cain grinned, drinking the rest of his beer in one go. Percy was starting to think that he was just drunk and wanted to see his friends slaughter the Hero of Olympus just for fun.

"I think you're taking this too far, but what the Hades." Percy muttered to himself with a shrug before rushing towards the closest person. She was his height and had long thick black hair that was tightly pulled into a pony-tail. She had a shield and a spear like how Thalia would fight.

Percy had beaten Thalia before, even while she'd been boosted by the Hunter's blessing, he could beat this woman who had a gaze so sharp that he was certain it could do more damage than the huge spear in her hands. Just as he'd been about to strike out, he was forced to defend at the last possible moment when that huge spear came crashing down on top of him.

His whole world went black and that was the last thing that he remembered. The woman took a long few seconds just looking at the body in the sand at her feet. "Are you sure you got the right one?" She asked in an accent that was quite similar to the one belonging to Cain.

Their leader of sorts just sighed heavily, "For the last time, I don't choose who gets the mark. The fact that he even has a black mark is enough confirmation for me, as it should be for you. I'll just have to train him until he can beat you back without even batting an eyelash." Cain shouted, his voice serious and not to be provoked. Percy groaned in his unconscious state.

"Only time will tell." The woman answered quietly, once again looking at the body by her feet from behind her gold colored eyes. She didn't ever have high hopes for those who were chosen by the mark, in her mind no one could have gone through anything as traumatic as she did, but everyone else kept their stories to themselves, despite the fact that they were the only ones that each other had.

"Laurette, play nice. Put our Demon somewhere he can rest, he's going to need it as I'm going to force him through Hell when he wakes up, but right now..." He announced before turning his back on the arena and started walking towards the archway of stone that stood just slightly taller than himself. "I'm off to the pub." He smiled to himself. It was always the small things in life that made the days go smoother, especially when you were an immortal who had to protect a world where true threats hardly ever surfaced. Yeah, that pub was definitely a good idea.

Still, Cain couldn't help but think back to the unconscious son of Poseidon in their home. The summon that he'd received was one that he'd never seen before. The one who was giving Cain orders must have seen a huge amount of potential in the boy because right now Cain couldn't help but agree with Laurette, he wasn't all that impressive, but no one ever was when they first became an Angel.

Cain had to be fair to the boy, he'd not even gotten halfway through his transformation into being one of them. Those who called themselves Angels only registered the fact that they were finally complete in their transformations once their eyes had turned pure gold.

One of his Gods had called him a Demon... On the same day that the mark had claimed him. That wasn't a coincidence, that was someone playing games with destiny. So they believed the son of Poseidon to be the one who could become a Demon among Angels, did they? Lauretta was right, only time would tell. Cain would think on it while having a pint and watching from afar how the boy's Gods dealt with his disappearance.

He was sure to have some fun with a few of them, perhaps he'd even directly meet some of them and tease about the boy's return. One thing was for sure, he couldn't wait to see the kind of monster he'd be turning the boy into, one with so much hidden potential that they were going to gain the title of Demon, Cain couldn't wait... After all, in all of his life living with the Angels, only he had ever been given the title of Demon, perhaps that was why the son of Poseidon was being set up to Cain training him. Perhaps there were further plans for the two of them to lead the defensive against a threat that Cain couldn't imagine them being able to defeat alone.

Now, onto far more important matters... What kind of beer did he fancy?

 **A/N: This is going to be a really slow story, so I'm hoping that you guys stick with it because I know you'll all love it.**

 **I need some feedback though, how are my concepts? How are my OC's? I'm gonna try and get quite a darkness on the characters in coming chapters.**

 **Oh, and I'm unsure of the pairing so far, but I'm pretty much known for my Pertemis, what do you guys think?**


	2. Chapter 2 - A Quick Drink

**Chapter 2 –A Quick Drink**

"Get up." A rough voice was heralded towards Percy's ears, quickly accompanied by a heavy boot hitting his ribs. He groaned but knew better than to argue with someone so high above him in raw power. These damned monsters were on par with the Gods, no, they weren't anywhere near the Gods. They far exceeded the confines of power that Gods were restricted to. They truly were Angels with how much higher they could soar.

"Yes ma'am." He mumbled groggily, rubbing his eyes and barely managing to stand up. He had no doubts that they were expecting to train him even with his body so badly battered and bruised. That being said, the moment that he stretched his muscles he felt no aches or pains, that was frankly quite strange considering that the moments before he'd been brought here he'd literally fought through a war.

"Clothes, put some on." She told him. Percy took a moment to look around and notice two things. Firstly that the owner of the voice was the first person he'd rushed towards, the one who had knocked him out clean with one single strike, and secondly, that he was in fact as per her words, entirely naked. He would have felt embarrassed about that but cared little for people looking at his naked body. He'd never had any reasons to feel embarrassed about anything.

Percy casually walked over to the hole in the wall that held a number of pieces of clothing. "Are these all mine?" He asked her in moderate surprise. With a single glance back at the woman who'd beaten him with ease, she simply nodded in silence, her golden eyes still watching the muscles of his back move whenever he did. It was rather fascinating, a sight that she didn't get much chance to see all that often.

A few minutes later and Percy was finally dressed. He'd actually been awake for around half an hour and had plenty of time to think about his situation. There was nothing he could do about being immortalized anymore but he had realized that these people weren't bound by the ancient laws of his pantheon, they couldn't possibly be, so there was obviously a way that himself and Annabeth could be together again. Maybe.

Instead of moping around, he'd take their training head on and show them just how powerful he could be, so he'd decided against arguing with any of them and warranting another ass-kicking. "Why exactly am I naked? I swear I was wearing clothes when you beat the crap out of my entire body." He asked. He watched her subtly out of the corner of his eye as he continued to find clothes that he liked the style of. There were quite a few and it appeared that the Angels didn't have a set uniform. They didn't need to when all of their work would go unrecognized by anyone other than themselves. He was used to being in a thankless duty though so it didn't bother him.

"You're a Prince of the sea, are you not? We believed that your body would heal quicker if we submerged you in water." She told him simply. He could tell that they didn't get much chance to ever interact with demi-gods as she seemed to be thinking the logic over, almost as if she hadn't really been sure of it in the first place.

"Yeah but I don't need to be naked. I could heal myself entirely with a simple bottle filled with salt-water." He told her in amazement of how little they truly knew. Her eyes seemed to widen a little at that. Had she underestimated him? Perhaps if they had fought in an environment more suited to his abilities, he may have proven more of a challenge for her. It was only then that she noticed that his eyes still had only the tiniest trace of gold pushing through whereas the rest was still better described as vibrant emeralds. Perhaps Cain was right, the boy would certainly be a powerful addition to their team if he could be trained right.

When he was done, he was wearing similar boots and trousers to Cain, all completely leather and dark, but where Cain opted for wearing an old torn t-shirt, the son of the sea God wore a white shirt with a long brown overcoat. It was a light overcoat and hung tightly to his body. He shouldn't have any problems moving around in it. It too was black, contrasting only against his tan skin and white shirt, the top buttons of which were lazily left undone. He looked far taller than before, perhaps the change to Angel was taking to him far more physically than it had for the rest of them.

"Where's Cain? He told me that he was the one training me." Percy commented before deciding that when this woman that had taken it upon herself to wake him up, left the room he was in without saying anything, that he should probably follow her.

"He's decided that because he's the one who gets given the orders for us, that he has the freedom to go back to the world when he wants to. Honestly, that's so open to abuse but all he ever does is goes drinking." She shrugged carelessly. If he had been abusing his ability to do what he wanted, then it seemed like she wouldn't have cared anyway.

"I am Laurette, and you are the one who is either brave enough or stupid enough to try and take on not just one of us but the whole lot." Her golden gaze that felt like it was capable of piercing his soul had slowly softened on him, "But I can't go around calling you stupid for all eternity, what do people call you?" She asked, leading him back into the courtyard that Cain had taken him to previously. They never stopped at the stone balcony, instead, they went down another set of stairs into an under-croft. He could see the arena behind an iron portcullis. The room they were in could only be an armory.

"My name is Percy. Are you going to train me until Cain comes back then?" He looked at her expectantly. She nodded. Percy. That wasn't a half bad name. It was a strange name for an Angel but so was Laurette, so she couldn't really say anything about it, plus, more than that their 'leader' was called Cain, that was definitely not the name of an Angel. It was all names and labels though, they weren't really Angels, there was no such thing as Angels but the idea of highly skilled warriors that fought against the unseen was fitting for the name.

"For the moment, I will train with you. What's your forte?" Percy almost didn't understand what she'd asked him until it clicked. She wanted to know where his strengths lied. He didn't know how best to say it as they were seemingly in the middle of a bland and bleak realm of flat nothingness. He didn't want to turn around and tell her that he was practically unbeatable if they could build him an ocean.

"I'm half decent with a sword, can use a shield. I can actually do pretty much anything but archery, puh-LEASE do not make me do archery." He told her quietly. He sounded so desperate, like a child that was on the verge of receiving a scolding. Laurette couldn't help but find it somewhat funny.

"Why would you tell me that? The first step in training is bringing up the level of your weaknesses so that they can't be classed as weaknesses. Come on water boy, let's go to the range." She sighed happily. This was quickly shaping up to be not so bad. She generally hated it whenever they got a new recruit as she was usually the one to train them. A few years would pass before she'd become reluctantly friendly to their presence, but then again this wasn't her recruit to train. He was being trained directly by the commando among them.

He already knew that this training would be harder than if Artemis and Apollo themselves were bearing down on him to try and train him in the ways of archery. He could feel that this was going to be a really grueling day.

 **Line Break**

Cain walked out of the side of a brick wall in a dingy little alley. Looking around he managed to navigate his way to the end of the walkway and out into a bustling main street. Breathing in the air he felt like it wasn't as fresh as he'd been expecting but that was hardly surprising considering how many cars were all rapidly flying around the roads. With one look towards the skyline, he found where he was. "Ah, New York? So that's where Olympus has been hidden away. Better than somewhere stupidly hot I suppose." He mused to himself in his thick British accent.

"Alewife Queens? That'll do, it's got the word ale in there, let's see what kind of funds I've got." He muttered, pulling a sleek black phone out of his pocket. The thing about being immortal and developing alongside the ages, was that his finances never seemed to slip when he'd spent years at a time in another realm. His interest rate was always something that helped him out wherever he decided to be in the world.

"I wonder what kind of godly attention I can get while I'm here." He grinned. As he put his phone back in his pocket, his eyes flared a darker shade of gold before returning to the lighter tone it had previously been. All he'd done was flux his natural power a little bit, he knew that any Gods around him would sense it and how different it was to their own. No doubt they were going to try and follow.

He'd opted for a change of clothes before coming to the mortal world, instead of leather, he was wearing some ragged boots that were apparently in style. Black jeans that hugged his muscular legs tightly, stopping just a little below his waist but managed to meet the bottom of a fresh white t-shirt that was mostly covered by a leather jacket. He knew that even appearing simply as a mortal he'd usually be found in a crowd because of his eyes but that wasn't something that he could actually control.

Walking into the bar he found himself actually very impressed with how nice the atmosphere was. It must not have been a peak time because the place had few people milling about and the bar-maid was sat behind the place, one hand was polishing the draughts and another was rapidly tapping away at the screen of a phone.

As Cain walked up to the bar he eyed all of the labels in amazement, "Christ, it's all craft beer." He muttered under his breath, now totally lost in what was most definitely a thing he liked to consider his 'domain'.

"Is that gonna be a problem?" He heard the voice of the barmaid ask him. He looked at her properly for the first time since walking in. She had a pretty face, topped by long brunette hair that fell down her shoulders in curls. It seemed impractical for someone working in a bar but he wasn't one to judge, he'd seen how truly long Laurette's hair had gotten before, and she was a warrior, hair got in the way so much more often when you were trying to avoid being impaled by a literal cyclone.

"Afraid so," Cain announced, kissing his teeth before locking eyes with her. He was sure that he'd heard her muffle a squeak of surprise. but he was used to it. "I can never decide what to have when it comes to craft beers." He laughed to himself before deciding to just let her pick something for him.

After paying up, he found himself sitting at the bar itself, silently inspecting the drink he'd gotten. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before someone showed up, they must have been on edge after Percy's disappearance.

"So, what made you come across the water?" She asked. He figured that she was just being polite and with no one else to talk to, he decided to oblige her until he could feel any Gods investigating him.

"I'm traveling at the moment, that's all." He answered her casually. It was true, at least partially. He was just traveling there to have a simple drink. He wondered what was happening back home when he thought about Laurette getting impatient with Percy. That boy was in for a real shock if he managed to sleep past what Laurette believed would be an appropriate amount of rest.

"Going anywhere specific then?" The conversation with the brunette continued going on, mostly with Cain lying about where he came from. The accent helped him a lot as she'd just assumed he'd come from England, which was more or less true but when he'd lived in this world, none of the people sounded like he did now which was almost ironic.

The doors to the bar opened and the bar-maid subconsciously seemed to straighten up. Cain didn't need to take his eyes away from his beer, he was enjoying it far too much, besides, he could see the reflection of the woman that had walked from the polished metal of the draught pumps. She was tall, very tall, and had incredibly distinct grey eyes. She seemed to immediately fixate on him which wasn't great. If she was a Goddess with any amount of intelligence then she'd immediately realize that the person she'd been feeling was in-fact him, probably just from the fact that he had golden eyes.

"Do you have a smoking area that isn't the street? I kind of have an odd habit of being protective of my glass until I'm done with it." He admitted to the barmaid with a smile. She pointed to the side of the room that had a small hallway, out there was a large balcony that was more like a reinforced roof with a fence around it. Out there were a few more people that were all smoking. He'd decided to prop himself up against the wall and light up a cigarette.

Drink in hand, he waited for the moment that the Goddess decided to follow him through, but it never came. He knew that she was a Goddess and perhaps she had already caught onto the fact that he was now basically playing a game of cat and mouse with her, but on the off-chance that she didn't, he didn't want to alert her to his presence any more than he already stupidly had.

He rubbed his temples, Greek Gods, who could that woman be from Percy's pantheon? He was brutally ripped out of his self-placed mental strain when he noticed something that should not have been there. Sitting on the edge of the metal fencing was a perfectly happy looking grey owl, just staring at him.

"Athena." Cain muttered through the cigarette in his mouth. He'd been so surprised by the presence of the owl that he hadn't noticed the tall woman that stood beside him with her arms folded. She looked at him in slight discomfort, as though she hadn't been expecting the somewhat bitter wind that was whipping her blonde hair around. She looked even more casual than he did considering that they weren't in a dive but an actually respectably well-kept bar.

"Yes?" She asked him like there were no problems at all. Silently and without any warning whatsoever, everyone else that had been smoking had all finished their cigarettes and gone back inside, like they could sense a malevolent storm brewing.

"I'm sorry, what?" Cain asked her in genuine confusion. She looked a little different from the woman that he'd seen walk into the bar but then again he had taken that chance to check out the barmaid a little more thoroughly.

"Tell me, why is it that we get through the worst war of our entire lives, have our twice saviour ripped from within our own throne room and then the very next day, we feel an almost unfathomable amount of power and I find you here, in a bar so close to our kingdom?" The tall blonde woman queried, never once breaking eye contact with the golden eyed Angel who was fairly impressed with her so far.

It had to have been Athena, the owl, the intelligence, the air of annoyance that he seemed to be getting from her. He'd keep that last one to himself though, if he remembered rightly she could be a pretty wrathful Goddess in her own right.

"You have a throne room? That's dope." Cain muttered in amazement. Casually as ever, he flicked his cigarette, only narrowly missing the owl that had flown off in response. He opened his mouth and flooded his throat with half of the contents of his glass. A pleased sigh escaped his lips once he did so.

"But I know nothing about any wars or whatever else you were talking about. Now excuse me, I've got something else to do literally anywhere away from here." He told her with a well natured genuine smile on show for the Goddess who was only just smaller than him. It was rather impressive for someone who he was sure had a divine form that was much, much taller than himself.

"You really think I'll just let you go on your way?" She asked with a raised brow, her hand managed to latch on his arm and stop him. In that one instant, she watched from a place frozen in time as the man finished his drink with ease.

"You're the wisdom Goddess, you tell me." He grinned, his eyes shot wide and her hand recoiled at the speed of light. "Thought so." He told her smugly. "That was a good beer, gonna have to remember this place." He muttered to himself before walking back inside and disappearing from Athena's line of sight.

When she rushed in to find him, he was gone, as was that insane power that followed him around. Whatever he was, he was incredibly strong and not someone to be messed with. With a mere look from those golden eyes he had managed to instil fear in her, HER, a Goddess! It had only lasted a split second and served to release her grip on him but it was still something to be cautious about.

It was possible that he didn't have anything to do with Percy's disappearance but that seemed all too convenient for her. No, he knew something and perhaps he was telling the truth that he didn't know anything about their wars, she got the feeling that he narrowly avoided spreading lies by carefully placing his words with tact. He didn't know anything about the wars they waged among themselves, but if he was something that Olympus had never encountered before, then it was possible that they knew specifically about Percy. He had a silver tongue and plenty of experience dealing with escaping sticky situations. If she ever encountered him again, she was sure that her first action was going to be flagging every and all God that would answer her summon.

Now she had to explain to the council about her encounter with the golden eyed man.

 **Line Break**

When Cain had returned to their home, he found that something was immediately out of place. It seemed that given the fact that when he'd left, Laurette had just beaten Percy's face into the ground, and now that he was back after only a half an hour on Earth, Percy was already up and training with Laurette on the archery range. He could see them from the edge of the portal. Was it broke? Perhaps someone had been playing with the time dilation on it. Wait, no, that wasn't possible to do, the difference in time between their own realm and Earth was beyond their control, so how the hell was the kid already awake?

Percy fired off another arrow, not daring to get his hopes high that they could train him to actually hit the target, yet here he was, able to actually shot straight for the first time in his life. He'd been so invested with actually hitting targets from something other than a fluke, that he hadn't even noticed Cain's return.

"That was fast." Laurette commented, nodding towards Cain who looked thoroughly unsettled by something. Percy was sweating heavily under the sun. He'd forgotten that bows were actually quite heavy and it was weighing down considerably on his arms to just hold it in a constant position.

"Yeah, I was only there for half an hour, plus the travel time between dimensions, so it must have been, what, two hours here? How the fuck is he already awake, I watched you basically make him eat dirt." Cain muttered uneasily. He held his hands in the pockets of some black jeans. Golden eyes analysing Percy with an intensity that made the son of Poseidon incredibly uncomfortable.

"He's a Prince of the sea isn't he? I put him in the river. He's been asleep for about an hour at most. It seems that we've finally got a warrior who may be able to fight in all terrains. This will make a fair few of our missions easier." Laurette told him quickly. She was actually giving someone praise for the first time in a long time. Cain looked from Percy to Laurette to see if either of them were damaged.

"Something I should probably have mentioned, it may have actually cleared up your questioning mind." Cain said sheepishly whilst scratching the stubble on his face, "Percy here isn't a Prince of the sea. He's the son of Poseidon, he's literally half God. His mastery over hydrokinesis pretty much puts him on his own level, or it will once he fully ascends." Cain explained.

"Shame I'm still shit with a bow." Percy muttered under his breath before feverishly drinking from a bottle of water sat on the ground. Cain raised an eyebrow, everyone had their weaknesses, it didn't surprise him that even a demi-god would have areas of combat they were no good at.

"That's fine because now that I'm back you're going to go through the training that I decide." Cain grinned, sweeping his hands towards the sky smugly. Percy was sure that in Cain's mind that literally just meant that he was going to push him through hell and back.

"Laurette, you can return to whatever it was before you brought him here, I'll take over. Percy, carry on _trying_ to hit the target." Cain almost giggled to himself with how abundantly clear it was that Percy sucked with a bow.

"How long are we going to train for?" Percy looked up at his new 'mentor' of sorts who was lazily resting on a stone wall, hands still in his pockets, he seemed to be watching Percy's firing form.

Cain regarded the question as he had pretty much everything Percy had asked, with a slight sigh and a scratch of the face. He could see the shining hope still resting in Percy's eyes, he could tell that he was eager to get back into the mortal realm but there was still so much the kid needed to know.

"Whatever ideas you've got about going home can be forgotten kiddo. You're one of us now, we serve someone far beyond ourselves, and they've never released one of us from these scars." He glanced at his own palm, a sense of sadness drifted over them. Immortality was never a gift. Percy got the feeling that everyone who had been chosen by the mark were people that hadn't wanted immortality, either that or they were simply just too powerful to let time kill off.

Percy offered no response, instead he looked back to the target at the end of the range. If all he could do was train, then he'd do exactly that, and become tenfold more powerful than he already was. He already knew that by the time he was eventually going to get back to the world, he was going to turn it upside down.

 **A/N: Just so you guys know, Cain is literally just his name, that's all. And the scars on their hands aren't the mark of Cain. I'm more original than that. His personality however, is yours truly.**

 **Things really start to pick up next chapter, promise. Review?**


	3. Chapter 3 - Welcome To The Jungle

**Chapter – Welcome To The Jungle**

"Hey, Rookie!" Percy was made aware of the fact that there was an apple rapidly approaching his face when he heard Cain shouting for him. Previously he'd been enjoying his one day off that he was allowed each month.

Percy didn't know how long he'd been in their realm of whitewashed structures and burdening heat, but what he did know was that for the mortal realm, there had been a significantly lesser period of time since he was taken from the world, that could still have been ten or fifteen years though. His training had been harsh, unbearably, but he'd pulled through it because he had no other options. He was one of the Angels, and in those three years he'd proven to everyone that he was deserving of a better title. He'd truly become a Demon among Angels, and that was something that gave Cain an immense sense of pride. He'd finally found his partner and it turned out that the mistress had actually given him someone capable, not the short straw of the lot.

"What?" Percy groaned lightly as he caught the apple, not letting it throw him off balance from where he'd strung up a small hammock of solid blue light. The power to create things from light was possibly THE greatest thing about being chosen to be an eternal Angel. He could create somewhere to nap no matter where he was. It let him take being lazy to a whole new level.

"We've got a mission, let's go." Cain chucked a paper aeroplane at him. With an outward sigh to Cain's antics, Percy caught the paper aeroplane which he just assumed would likely be their orders. Taking a moment to open and read through it, Percy wasn't sure what he should be feeling. This was it, he was finally going back home, yet... Nowhere near his home. The mistress wanted the two most powerful Angels to go and covertly destroy the heart of Gaea, which was being held in a cave that stretched miles underground... In Borneo.

"You seem... Happy about this, all things considered." Percy commented, seeing Cain through a narrowed gaze. He may have been the newest Angel, still holding the nickname of rookie but there was little doubts in the minds of the other Angels that the only one who was more powerful than Percy was at that moment was Cain.

"If you don't laugh, you cry!" Cain smiled joyously before his face turned to stone faster than a shot bullet, "I fucking hate snakes, so where does she send us? BORNEO!" Cain was moments away from furiously flipping off the sky but he managed to calm himself down. "Seriously, who's fuckin' idea was it to make crawling tubes of malevolence that are practically undetectable when you're neck deep in shit amidst a jungle full of the fuckers in the ass end of nowhere!" Cain screamed. It seemed to Percy that in times like these, Cain was pretty much inconsolable.

"You're just angry because there aren't any pubs in the jungle, aren't you?" Percy sighed once again. Cain ran a hand through his hair in frustration. It was bad enough that once Percy had practically closed the gap in power between himself and every other Angel there was, that the mistress had capped Cain's ability to go to the mortal realm on his own.

"That's a good enough reason if we're going to a jungle. Can't we just tell her that we went to the jungle, and, I dunno, just blow up Borneo instead? We'd save some time, enough time in fact, that we could slip down to the Sunken Norwegion for a quick one." Cain grinned. In that moment, where he'd suggested pure anarchy as a solution to their mission, his eyes glowed much brighter than usual. That was his element apparently, pure destructive chaos.

"No, we've got a job to do, let's do it." Percy told him sternly, grabbing Cain by the arm and dragging him towards the arched stones that lit up when the two Angels who'd gained the title of Demon had approached. It was directly connected to their mistress, so it knew when there was and wasn't an authorised use.

"You're no fun today. Fine, let's go to the damn jungle." Cain gave up, throwing his hands skywards before following Percy through the portal. He wasn't exactly sure where the portal would take them, but it was usually pretty in tune with where their missions were, so he was expecting it to at least be somewhere near Borneo.

The two Angels stepped out of thin air only to find themselves standing on the embankment of a roaring river, majestically flowing through a valley of lush green tree canopies that stretched for as far as the eye could see.

"I suppose the greenery isn't terrible to look at, but there could be a pub right... There." He grinned, placing his hands out in front of him. Percy merely raised an eyebrow at his mentor.

"You have problems Cain." The son of Poseidon mused to himself in entertainment. He couldn't really find any footholds in making complaints about his life after his life. Becoming an 'Angel' hadn't been all that bad. Yeah, he hadn't been able to see any of his friends or family for something like fifty years but that was something the Gods wanted to do to him anyway, so what was the real difference there?

Once he'd gained his golden eyes, he soon found that his power was building with each passing day, with each moment that he trained his body and mind. His power of water had become next to absolute, he was even sure that he'd give his own father a run for his money when it came down to controlling the currents.

"It's only a problem when I run out." The older Angel chuckled immaturely. Such a response was something that Percy WAS used to hearing in response to any and all accusations that Cain had an issue with his alcohol consumption.

"Anyway, mistress wants us to find the 'heart of Gaea' that's hidden inside something like a three or four mile long cave, and what's more is that, she-SHIT!" Cain was so startled by something that in his mind's eye had resembled a snake quickly slithering towards him that he'd accidentally let loose a blast of blue light towards the ground.

A huge chunk of the bank had exploded before being washed away into the river. "Seriously? That was a fucking shadow you nonce." Percy flicked Cain's head in irritation. Something so little and there he was already shooting projectiles of raw energy at them. "You're lucky that was still such a weak blast. Mistress would be utterly beyond pissed off with us if you'd used pure light within the first ten seconds of us being here." Percy reprimanded him. The whole time Cain had stood there with a sheepish grin on show.

"Yeah, well, our mistress may not be the one we should be worrying about right now." Cain pointed high into the sky at what Percy could only describe as a silver comet coming crashing down right in their direction.

"Oh we REALLY do not need to deal with that right now. Cain, run!" Percy ordered through a hushed bellow while he'd already started to bolt in the opposite direction of the impending impact.

"What the hell is it!? And why does is smell so strongly of cinnamon!?" Cain asked, taking every precaution to follow Percy's exact footsteps as they ran through the heated jungles of Borneo. Percy could walk on water, which was an unfair advantage to have in a jungle in the first place, but he also didn't loathe the existence of snakes, which the jungle was crawling with.

"It's a pissed off twelve year old that will kill you just because you're a man, like, as a starting point. You're probably the exact epitome of what she hates though." Percy explained. If what he'd been feeling was what he thought it was, then he was sure that they were about to be hunted down by an angry Goddess. She was probably even more upset about the fact that she would have undoubtedly been charged with the task of tracking Percy after he'd disappeared, and a Goddess she may be, but she was certainly not getting into the realm of light.

"Then why are we running?" Cain asked him incredulously before sliding to a complete halt and holding his arm out. Whatever it was, it had landed and the power behind it was starting to follow the two of them. Percy had tried to stop Cain from doing what he was planning on doing but hadn't been fast enough to tell him to stop before a cone of blue light erupted furiously from the scar on his right hand. What could only be described as a horizontal tornado of angry blue light, had roared through the jungle, down the path that they'd been running through.

When it faded, there was a potent trail of destruction. "Ah!?" Cain shouted in confusion before running past Percy in the space of a few seconds. The son of Poseidon had no idea what was wrong, but he decided that he didn't want to wait around to find out first hand.

"What!?" Percy was stuck in a loop of not knowing what Cain was doing, and knowing even less about what was happening behind them. Had Cain just killed Lady Artemis? That was probably not a good start to their mission. Firstly, he greatly respected Artemis, more so than he did for most of the Olympian council, and secondly, once she'd reformed if she had been killed, she was going to be furious.

"I hit the mummy spider but now there's like thirty mini silver spiders all trying to kill us!" Cain bellowed in fearful hysterics. It became immediately clear to Percy that Cain wasn't actually sure where he was running to. Percy had just assumed that he knew where the cave was, and was gradually bringing them closer to their objective, but as Cain changed direction with speed that was close to being unseen by Percy's eyes, just because of a snake, it became obvious that Cain was simply being Cain. An idiot.

"I would have probably already found this cave if you'd let me do this with Laurette instead." Percy muttered under his voice, branching off from Cain's rampage through the jungle. He veered the complete opposite way, deciding that he'd have a much better chance of not being discovered by Artemis and her hunters if he followed the pull in his gut that told him there was a river nearby. Perhaps he could hide inside until this all blew over... Or he had to rescue Cain, he wasn't really sure.

He was rather worried about how that would all pan out, after all, he'd seen Cain throw a blast at Artemis after hearing that the thing following them was in fact just an immortal twelve year old. He doubted that the British Angel would have any issues fighting her at all, that plus his attitude. Percy realized that if Cain got caught, then they would absolutely see how much punishment an Angel could take before their bodies broke down.

It hadn't taken more than a few minutes at most before Percy was lying casually at the bottom of a river that was flowing around him with brutal speeds, not that it had bothered him at all. In his time training for years on end in the realm of light, Cain had gotten Percy to train his hydrokineses, and all of his inherited powers as a son of Poseidon. He'd said that it was what set Percy out among the Angels and that as it was what had set him on his current path, that it shouldn't ever be forgotten.

Minutes passed before Percy could sense multiple lives all milling around the edge of the waters. They all seemed to be on relatively similar power, except for one that was far above the rest, but if he remembered right, it wasn't the same feeling as a Goddess, so it couldn't have been Artemis, she must have followed Cain. Poor Cain.

There was a splash at the surface of the water which sent Percy into shock and confusion. One of the hunters had willingly jumped into the river!? They were strong, far beyond super-human, but none of them would be able to fight against currents as strong as these, what the hell were they thinking!?

Percy was about to force his body to the surface to save the hunter that would now be on the verge of drowning but what he saw instead was something that caused him to stare with his jaw slack. An older hunter, possibly fourteen or fifteen years old, had come gracefully gliding through all of the currents until she was face to face with Percy. Gold eyes meeting vibrant emeralds. He noticed the way that she had a somewhat lopsided grin on show as she swam with perfect movements. Long raven hair floating around her head. Percy was sure that what he was looking at was a daughter of Poseidon, there was no way around it. Here she was, under a raging river like it was absolutely nothing.

"Shit." Percy mouthed to himself before this huntress grinned, showing some sharp canines before slamming a familiar looking sword down on Percy's face, rendering him in absolute agony. The young hunter looked taken back. Usually that would work on anyone, why wasn't it working down here, where she was stronger and where this man would be no doubt using most of his strength to fight against the currents.

"You know how much that hurts!? Damn!" Percy roared angrily before forcing both of them to be ejected from the river. The girl landed with a painful thud whereas Percy landed softly on both feet, suddenly aware of the fact that there were seven bows all with arrows knocked and ready to be unleashed at his face. He wasn't sure that many of them would recognize him, he wasn't even sure if he'd met half of the hunters in the time that he'd been the hero of Olympus, but now, after so much time would have passed, he stood taller than he was before, with a strong stubble much like Cain's, and golden eyes to match. His hair was still long and raven, but that was the only thing that was reminiscent of the man he used to be.

Reluctantly, Percy put his hands in the air and sighed. He could easily have wiped them all out then and there before going to rescue that idiot partner of his. It was funny how the 'mentor' was usually the one getting into trouble. Percy had a distinct feeling that Cain often got himself into these situations purely because of how powerful he was, everything else must have seemed somewhat boring to him.

They must have realized at some point that trying to render him unconscious was something that simply wasn't going to happen, instead they forced him to march through the jungle for what seemed like hours until they were finally entering a clearing where Percy could see quite a few other hunters and Artemis herself standing with arms folded in front of Cain who was hanging by his feet from a few low hanging branches. In his hands, he was clutching a bottle of amber liquid that Percy had for a single moment thought to be nectar before realizing that it was just whisky.

"Oh thank god, I thought you were snakes for a moment there." Cain sighed happily before bringing his shoulders skywards so that he could continue to drink from the bottle. Percy had stopped questioning a few things about Cain, mostly where he seemed to source all of his alcohol when they were in the light realm as there was simply no way for him to gain access to such things, but now that he'd seen Cain managed to acquire a bottle of whisky whilst they were in the jungle, he realized it simply had to be a power of his.

"You're a fucking idiot. Can we please just get out of here?" Percy exasperated, he was bored with this whole place, and the constant fear of having an arrow shot at his genitals.

"Silence!" Artemis bellowed.

"Shut up, you've talked for long enough." Cain glared at her, from upside down. Artemis responded by casually walking over to him before punching him so hard that the branches creaked from his body swinging on them. When he'd stopped swinging, he slowly opened his eyes and stared right into hers.

"If you do that again, I will cause you to fade." He quietly growled. Artemis wasn't sure what had hit her but when she looked into this man's eyes, she knew that it wasn't a threat, but a promise of pain and agony that he was placing upon her. These two males were incredibly dangerous.

"Are you the one that Athena found near Olympus the day after our hero was stolen from us fifteen years ago? You've got golden eyes and a strange personality, that matches her description." Artemis questioned him, never once looking at Percy. He found it rather ironic that she was interrogating his partner while he was stood right behind her.

"Fifteen years? Lady, I went to that little bar and upset your stuck up Goddess fifty years ago, not fifteen, though, time moves slower in the realm of us Angels." Cain shrugged, upside down which looked immensely weird.

Percy watched in silence, so that was how long it had been for him. Fifty years he'd been training with Cain, fifty long years and yet his body had only just held the looked of a young man in his prime. Immortality wasn't all that bad when he was a sixty eight year old man with the body of a twenty one year old.

"Hey Rook, have you found the cave yet? I'm sure Laurette is watching us and I'm not sure how much patience she has." Cain suddenly ignored the Goddess entirely which seemed to only worsen her disposition towards him, not that he apparently cared at all.

Percy had taken the chance to fold his arms and close his eyes before Artemis could look at him. If she recognized him then it would be all over and they'd have the whole of Olympus to deal with, and that wasn't favourable for anyone. Instead of letting any of them really see what he looked like, he chose to play himself off as someone else.

"No, but I can feel a passage of water about a mile underneath us, it's possible that it's part of the cave we seek." He answered with a deeper voice. He could tell from the sounds of shuffling feet that Artemis had finally changed her focus to him. He felt slightly uncomfortable knowing that she could recognize him at any moment, especially if he knew anything about the skills of the hunter.

"Annabeth." He heard Artemis call out, quietly. Shit, Annabeth was there as well!? What the hell was she doing with the hunters? "Does this man look familiar to you?" Artemis asked. Cain watched from his hanging prison. Percy was still stood with his arms folded and eyes closed, not granting them any focus as he was still trying to locate the cave that they needed to go to.

If Cain could give Percy some more time before being recognized then it was possible that Percy would find their destination before the two of them had to break away from these hunters. The older Angel groaned to himself. This 'distraction' was no doubt going to be incredibly painful, and it had to be something to cause any of them to take the bait.

"Who is this lame loser that you're looking for anyway?" Cain asked, freely drinking from his bottle. The next thing he realized was that glass had erupted into the air and there was a throwing knife inches away from his mouth, having been caught by the neck of the bottle. His whisky was everywhere and a young girl with bright green eyes was marching up to him with a stormy face.

"That _loser_ is the hero of Olympus. He saved everyone and everything from a Titan's cruel rule and a Primordial's brutal tyranny, he's also my older brother, have some respect." The little hunter ordered. There was an air of authority in her voice that he found had also been in Percy's voice. Was that a trait similar to children of Poseidon or was it possible that they both shared the exact same parents? If Cain was right, Percy's mother was married to a mortal man now, was there secrets being kept in the mortal world?

"Gaea..." Cain whispered to himself. As if lightning has struck inside his head, he was suddenly aware of everything, the plans the mistress had for them. They weren't simply preventing the rise of Gaea, they were stopping an alliance happening between their mistresses' enemies.

"Fuck, I'm so stupid. Rookie, we're leaving, right now." Cain announced. Blue light burnt away the ropes that held his feet in place. With an elegant flip, he'd landed on his feet. A look of great emotional pain crossed his face when he saw the broken bottle in his hand. What a waste of good alcohol.

The hunters were all immediately on the offensive. Artemis herself had chosen to try and secure the man in front of her but when she reached out to place him in her restrain, he was beyond her reach within the blink of an eye. As he moved past her at the speed of light, she heard his voice, a voice that sounded so much like that of the one she'd been searching for.

"Sorry milady, but I'm needed for more than just Olympus now." He told her. She swung round violently as the words registered in her mind. She saw him go on to look at Annabeth who was on her knees with tears in her stormy grey eyes. Of course the daughter of Athena had worked it out before anyone else.

"Sorry wise-girl, I've got a mission to complete." He told her before pushing a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes before running over to join Cain who was lazily dodging arrows. "To the cave?" Percy asked. Cain merely nodded in agreement.

"Sorry about this." Percy muttered. He grabbed Cain by the shoulder before slamming his foot down. The ground shook and quaked beneath the hunters who couldn't withstand such a tremendous force. Blue light engulfed both of them before they began to actively tunnel straight down through their own power. The earth seemed to be practically swallowing them whole as fresh dirt covered their descent, blocking the hunters from giving chase.

Both Angels knew that for a fact the hunters would just seek out the cave at all costs and give chase but it presented the two of them with a window of time where they could seek out the heart of Gaea in peace.

"We're not preventing Gaea from rising and destroying your world or whatnot. We're killing Gaea forever and stopping her from siding with Nyx in an upcoming war." Cain explained, a sullen face on show.

"This is big, isn't it?" Percy asked, his voice barely heard over the sounds of the earth grovelling around them. Cain nodded in silence, his head hung low.

"The last time Nyx and our mistress had a war, we lost everyone but myself and Laurette. We're the oldest because all of the other Angels had been killed off against those who serve Nyx. War between Hemera and Nyx is the only reason that we have a certain class of Angels..." Cain went silent for a while, he wanted Percy to understand what he was really saying.

"Because in a fight between Angels of Day and Angels of Night, only Demons come out alive..." Percy commented wide eyed. He hoped to all that he held close that he was wrong but with a slow nod of agreement from his partner, he was forced to face the sad truth that in a war between their mistress and Nyx, the chances of anyone other than the two of them emerging alive was slim.

Because they were unmatched in power, even among the Angels, they were the ones that their mistress had decided were to stop Gaea from joining the upcoming war among Primordials. Percy couldn't help but wonder as they travelled underground, whether or not Nyx herself would come up with a Demon class warrior.

It was all the same, Percy had gone from being a pawn of the Gods to being a more powerful chess piece in a game played by Primordials. He wasn't about to let that stop him from doing his duty, he'd been chosen as a champion, marked by the touch of Hemera, he had trained for fifty years and in that time had become a Demon class Angel.

"Then I guess... We should show the world why we're Demons, make an example that even Nyx can't ignore." Percy suggested. Before Cain could reply, they were suddenly falling through the ceiling of the cavern they were in. A huge open area with what looked to be great roots of a tree all defensively curled around a red stone larger than either of them.

"You don't suppose that's just a normal Primordial's heart, and not Gaea's?" Cain grinned. Percy sighed before clenching his scarred hand out at arms length. Cain soon did the same after he'd wiped an non existent tear of amusement away from his eye. In perfect sync, both of them splayed their palms out towards the air, pure light filled the cavern and started to incinerate the heart of Gaea.

A tremendous rumble filled the entire structure, it was like a giant wail of pain that erupted in their ears and travelled all around them. A pang of energy crossed their senses and for the first time since they'd gotten there, Cain had actually felt a sense of duty towards those hunters that had followed them into the cave.

"We can't leave them down here, the whole place is about to have a permanent makeover. Split up and collect any hunters you find." Cain ordered before running down one of the two passageways that they could go down. They didn't exactly even know how to get out of the cave as they'd tunnelled straight down. Percy knew that it would be just his luck that after he'd practically admitted to both Artemis and Annabeth that his identity was the fabled warrior who'd gone missing all those years ago, that they would undoubtedly be in his path. He'd have a LOT of explaining to do if Cain's plan went wrong.

Hemera probably wouldn't be pleased but he'd have to use almost all of his power to get every hunter and Artemis safely out of there, but that's what they were there to do, on an indirect scale at least. If he couldn't save the ones right in front of his eyes, then what were Angels even good for?


	4. Chapter 4 - The Angels Return

**Chapter 4 – The Angels Return**

Cain had been expecting a great number of things to come along and make his day worse, most of them based around the angry Goddess that he may or may not have begun a huge feud with because he'd nearly incinerated her and her Hunters with barely anything more than an after thought.

But what he definitely wasn't expecting was Laurette to appear in his path, being the host to their mistress, eagerly awaiting to give Cain some divine punishment for his failure to carry out her orders discretely. Because of his appetite for destruction, they had certainly completed the mission but also compromised the lives of many who would otherwise be another unit to add to her ranks of allies in the upcoming wars.

As Cain belted through the crumbling cavern system, wisps of blue light flowed around his arms, catching any and every hunter that he'd found. As soon as the light his them, their bodies fell limp, paralysed but still aware as he continued to mutter his apologies. He only hoped that they realized he was trying to save them.

"Wonder if Rookie is having this much trouble-ah snake!" Cain screamed in a high pitch before narrowly avoiding being bitten in the face by a huge python that was hanging low from the rocky ceiling. Not even half a second after he'd ducked and dodged away from the serpent had the whole place been lit up in pure light, illuminating every crevice in the entire place.

"SHIT! I'M SORRY!" Cain screamed like a girl at the visage of Laurette that was gracefully afloat in front of him. He knew that it wasn't Laurette, not really. Her eyes instead of being golden like his and all other Angels, were now just wisps of pure white light that flowed beautifully around her face.

It was the body of Laurette but she was playing host to their mistress. A single snap of her fingers and constructs of pure light appeared every few meters from the ground to the ceiling, effectively keeping the entire complex from being destroyed all around them.

"Good afternoon Cain." Her voice sounded soft and was accompanied by a soft smile that graced Laurette's lips with a natural sway.

"PLEASE DON'T BURN AWAY MY EXISTENCE, I'M SORRY MISTRESS!" To anyone else, Cain's performance would have seemed almost entirely genuine, but Hemera wasn't one to be outsmarted, and she'd had Cain serving her for thousands of years, she knew him better than anyone.

In fact, she was the only one, aside from Laurette who had been his closest friend in all those years, who also knew that the man who'd lived through all stages of the British empire due to Hemera's mark was actually born during the Roman colonization of Britain.

Hemera doubted however that even Laurette knew that Cain was a Roman Demi-god. It wasn't something that he had ever been proud of because of the grim circumstances of his birth. The Gods weren't always righteous.

"You gave young Perseus the impression that I'm a wrathful Goddess, didn't you?" She asked him gently with a slight degree of amusement sitting behind those pure eyes of light. Cain's features took no more than a second or two before they changed from fearful to playful with a gentle smile on show to match his mistresses.

"Yeah, how funny is that?" Cain giggled with a slight scratch of his beard.

Hemera slowly shook her head but still held that smile. "Laurette will summon me once you've gotten everyone out of this danger that you put them in, and then I will explain to that Goddess exactly what is going on. Laurette will help you until then." Hemera's words never shifted from soft and gentle but Cain knew that she wans't playing around, not that he ever would when it directly came to her orders. He wasn't just some servant to her, he was always going to be by her side out of choice. He just hoped that he could get back into her good books so that she would revoke her ban on his free use of the portal, he was dying for a drink right now. The light around her faded and her feet touched down against the ground. Once she opened her eyes, they were once again golden.

"Hey girl, fancy seeing you here." Cain nodded with a fake grin. He knew how much Laurette hated it when he played around like this but strangely he only ever seemed to do it to her.

"There's a snake on your shoulder." Laurette pointed out quickly. Cain's screams filled the entire cavern and echoed around the cave system for miles.

Percy had no idea what was going on but he assumed that something strange had happened since the whole cave was filled with constructs of pure light that had stopped everything from falling down. As it stood, here he was facing off against the daughter of Poseidon who stood atop an underground waterfall that was more like a raging river. Just behind her was a source of natural day light, not just the beams that held the cavern up. He hadn't come across any other hunters so far but he guessed that only she would be able to continue down the crevasse with such a roaring stream standing in her way.

Percy continued to walk, he'd only barely noticed her out of the corner of his eye anyway so it was possible that she believed herself to be hidden. "Look, I really don't have time to fight you, little girl. If you could help me get all of you hunters out of her before the caves collapse, that'd be great." Percy announced, his loud voice echoing off of the walls around him.

"Is it true, what Lady Artemis told me?" The girl asked him, taking a single step forwards into the river, the water holding her aloft as she gently rode it down to meet him.

"I don't know, I wasn't there to hear it." Percy told her with a bored look, crossing his arms as he waiting for the girl to continue explaining. She really did look like the spitting image of what he'd have been if he was a woman, it was almost scary. She even looked like she had the same features that he'd gotten from his mother, was she fully his sister?

"She said that when you escaped us, that you said something unmistakable. She told me that you were the one they searched for tirelessly ever since I was born. That makes you my older brother, is it true?" At this point the girl was standing inches away from him, using the water as a platform to bring her eyes right next to his as her emerald gaze analysed everything about him. It seemed that she simply couldn't believe it because of how purely golden his eyes were.

Just as Percy opened his mouth, one by one the constructs of light started to fade away behind him. "Time to go, fish brain." He told her before grabbing her hand and sending a jet of water rushing past their feet as they both shot straight up the river at the speed of light. Just as they reached the top, Percy found himself staring at Artemis who had a fist wound back. Just beyond them was daylight as the entrance opened up into the vast jungles beyond.

Percy had tried to say something just before Artemis' fist struck out and send him tumbling all the way back down the waterfall and into the collapsing cave system. He heard a shout from one of them above him but all he could think to do was get them out of there. With a pulse of his mark, blue light erupted from where they were standing and forced them clear of the tunnels just before they collapsed entirely. Rocks and debris began to rain down over his body. The water formed a nicely protective cocoon around him, not that it would have greatly mattered to him. Angels had bodies that were even more durable than the Gods, it would have taken a meteor strike to hurt him even a little bit.

Artemis, Annabeth and one of Artemis' newer Hunters all stood staring at the collapsed entrance in silence and shock. He'd saved them? Before any of them could question how long they'd been like that, their silence was torn apart.

"Oi! Give me a hand will you? I'm using my power so that I don't have to touch any of your girls. You are the one who saves abused young women right? Or is that a different Goddess?" Artemis heard the British man's voice. He seemed to be struggling to hold twenty of her hunters in the air with nothing more than blue light that erupted from his hands.

Artemis was furious and she wasn't so sure that she even had good grounds to be angry with him. He'd saved all of her hunters that had taken the other route into the caves, not a single one of them were hurt, and that other one had saved herself and another two.

Walking behind the British man was a tall woman who also had striking golden eyes. She held her hand up into the air allowing a much duller blue light to carry another five of her hunters, and she physically carried Thalia over her shoulder.

Without another second wasted, Artemis and her free Hunters began carrying the others out of the two sets of light and gently setting them on the ground.

"Who are you?" Annabeth looked up, temporarily lost from her thoughts about Percy when she saw that the current issue was far more pressing. In the last fifteen years she'd become an incredible Hunter.

"We're Angels, I'm sure I told you that while you strung me up like a bloody pinata." Cain explained, completely uncaring of the rising number of bows that were being pointed at him as he made his way to the collapsed cave entrance.

"Lower your weapons girls, if he wanted to we'd have all been killed in the caves." The Goddess told them. Cain offered her an estranged look for no more than a few seconds.

"Not sure if you were aware of this, little Goddess, but Angels look after people. We only take the lives of our enemies, and most of us were once living and fighting alongside you." Cain gently picked up a rock and casually chucked it further up the mountain.

"You OK down there Rookie?" He shouted through the smallest gap in the rocks before putting his ear to the hole.

Laurette came straight over to Artemis, gently bowing her head ever so slightly. "My name is Laurette, the idiot is Cain. We're, as he's said, Angels, we don't needlessly take lives, instead we try to protect everyone. We were on a missing to destroy the heart of Gaea to stop her from rising." Laurette explained, casually turning her gaze from the Goddess who had decided to change her appearance. She was no longer that of a twelve year old, but instead she matched her older hunters, looking physically the same age as Annabeth.

"Relax Cain, it's only a mountain." They all heard a voice call out from beneath the totalled cave.

"Only a mountain." Cain laughed before his expression turned sour, "SHI-!" He fell hard onto his ass as blue light tunnelled through the rocks that he'd had his face so close to. Standing there with tattered remains of a crisp white shirt was the other Angel.

All of the girls looked on in an almost synchronized recognition of what lay on his body when he'd pulled his shirt free of said body. Sitting across his chest right where his heart was, was a perfectly simple white tattoo that was clearly visible against his tanned skin. Above his heart sat a trident, an unmistakable sign of who he was.

"God dammit, Rookie! You could have singed my beard!" Cain shouted in false anger before sighing and getting back onto his feet. He was promptly ignored by all but Laurette who'd seen Percy topless quite a few times in the past fifty years. The Hunters were all simply transfixed on the fact that here he was, the one they'd been searching for after so many years.

"It really is you." Annabeth muttered when she stepped forwards with a hand outstretched.

"Mistress is here." Laurette announced, effectively getting all eyes on herself before her eyes erupted into wisps of pure light and she began to raise off of the ground. There she was, irradiating with light as she looked around them all.

"Mistress! Imagine seeing you here!" Cain smiled jovially.

"You already knew that I'd be coming. Rest now Cain, you've got a lot to deal with when you next come here." Hemera announced, snapping her fingers. The only thing that anyone saw was Cain's frown of confusion before he faded from sight. The Angel had gone back to the Heavens at the will of their mistress.

"Perseus, my Demon among Angels." Hemera announced. For some of the Hunters it had been obvious as to who he was but hearing his name had been the final stepping stone. Annabeth had forced herself to crouch as she watched with baited breath, she no longer trusted her legs to carry her.

Percy stood tall, waiting for his new orders. She clearly knew that it was Cain's fault not his own that the cave collapsed.

"War is coming, my dearest sister has garnered forces beyond what Olympus is capable of fighting against. She has amassed her sons and daughters to fight against my Angels. I truly do not know what will happen when the war begins but for us to pull through and strive, I need you and Cain to unleash your Demons, when that happens you will need to be there to make sure that Cain does not lose his way, Laurette can only do so much to keep him alive because she is only an Angel." Percy shifted uncomfortably. He knew that war was coming, he'd known for a while now, but he never knew who it was that they would be fighting against. For Hemera to call someone her dearest sister must have been almost symbolic, he would have been surprised if she was talking about anyone other than Nyx herself.

"Yes mistress, what is my mission?" He asked, splaying his hand across the air, repair all of the scuffs in his long black overcoat. His shirt was far too destroyed for him to be able to repair it however, so that meant he was going shirtless underneath his coat for a while which gave off a perfect view of his body sculpted from marble.

"Protect your friends and family as is your duty as an Angel, make me a full report on what's going on outside our Heavens. Take any action that you deem necessary and Cain will join you when I am finished with him. Soar Perseus." Hemera's words were filled with warmth that disappeared along with the light that came with her.

Laurette pushed herself off of her knees with a grunt. Being the host to a Primordial was extremely exhausting at the best of times, but twice in one day? "I need to rest, Perseus. I'm going home, I'll see you when things all start to unfold." Laurette told him, wiping sweat away form her forehead before she too had faded much like Cain had.

That left thirty immortals all staring at Percy in shock. "I'm beginning to really hate this jungle." He muttered in aggravation. Fifteen years for them, fifty years for him, he'd just about gotten over the thought of ever coming back and yet here he was, standing indifferent to their emotions towards him.

"Soar, because and Angel can totally do that without wings, mistress." Percy spoke to the sky, splaying his arms wide. There was more silence while he just glared at the sky. "Guess she's not going to give me them so easily." He continued to mutter. He decided that he'd have to address the current issue sooner or later

"Fifteen years you've been gone, Perseus." Artemis stood out from the rest, the soft silver outline seemed to accentuate her voluptuous figure. Percy was a thousand percent certain that he'd never seen her look anywhere near his age, well, his physical age.

"Fifty for me, but what can you do? Angels are terrible with timing. This whole immortality thing isn't as bad as I thought it would be, I mean, look at me, I'm a sixty eight year old man. I am shit hot." Percy grinned, seeing the looks of hatred that he was getting from most of the hunters. He heard a growl further behind Artemis and in a split second he saw a lightning bolt splitting the skies as it came down to fry him.

To him it looked like it was travelling at a snail's pace, so with minimal effort, he casually stepped to the side whilst it exploded against the ground. "Was that the best you can do, or do you want to try again, tree face?" Percy grinned, crossing his arms as Thalia came out from behind Artemis with a playful look on her face. He knew that there was only one person that would be able to growl irritably with his sheer existence before emerging as the happiest person in the world.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, like how you save the world then disappear after refusing immortality again only to show up fifteen years later as... As an Angel." Thalia told him, pointing at him expectantly.

"Yeah, I know. I've got a lot of explaining to do, as you'd expect but I literally just got crushed by a mountain falling on top of me. I'm going to go and rest up. I guess I'll come to Olympus in a few days or something." Percy told them, making sure that he didn't have any eye contact with Annabeth who he probably already made feel terrible after his comment earlier in the day.

"What makes you think that I'm letting you get away for a second time?" Artemis glared at him from behind cold eyes.

Percy stood in silence for a moment before walking over to her, either oblivious of the bows drawn at him or completely uncaring, which was most likely the case.

"What makes you think that you can stop me?" He asked. His golden eyes were firmly locked with her piercing silver gaze and for the second time that day she felt truly fearful for what he was capable of. It was just as Athena had described, these people were monstrously powerful, yet she hadn't gotten that same feeling from the female Angel they were with. Their mistress, the one of pure light, called them both the Demons among Angels, perhaps it was just them that heralded terrifying masses of power.

Before Artemis could utter another word. His body rocketed into the sky, fading from view where they were all forced to squint against the glaring sun. Artemis could stare into the sun without it harming her sight, she saw what no one else did. Right before his body faded, it had set the sky alight with a visage of an Angel made of pure light. It was a sight to behold. She didn't have time to worry about any of that, she had to report back to Olympus straight away, they needed to know that Athena's urgent rambling was right, the Angels had returned. At least her forced trip to Borneo with all of her hunters hadn't been in vain.

 **Line Break: Yo, enjoying the story?**

Cain blinked and found that he was no longer in the jungles of Borneo, in fact he was back in the same room that everyone always woke up in when they first became an Angel. It was strange that Hemera would personally send him back here, and he'd wondered what her cryptic words had meant until he saw the woman standing against the door frame, the exact same way that he always would when he was waiting for a new Angel to awaken.

"Strange being on the other side for a change. Who are you, what are you, why are you standing there and why don't I have a beer in my-" Cain's words were cut short when the woman silently handed him a glass of golden liquid to which he merely glared before dejectedly drinking.

"I am Bellona, the Goddess of War." She stated calmly, running a single hand through her short chocolate hair. Cain glared heavier than before. What the hell was SHE of all people doing in Hemera's realm? This couldn't possibly have been the beginning of the war, could it? Was the mistress already rallying the Gods to her cause?

Hemera was always one step ahead and Cain could tolerate having to be on the same side of a war with the woman in front of him but why the hell was she HERE!?

"And like that, I already don't like you." He announced heavily.

"That's not fair!" Bellona shouted. She stepped forwards with hurt in her eyes, her old Roman armour still shining but age was getting to it.

"Nothing about this is fair!" Cain retorted, finishing the pint of beer in his second swig. At least his drinking game was still on top form even if his nerves weren't.

"You were marked by your Goddess since the day you were born, there was NOTHING that I could have done!" Bellona's hurt eyes changed to fury as she defended her dignity against the Angel that vastly out-shined her in raw power.

"You killed me Bellona! LITERALLY. KILLED. ME." Cain spelled it out slow and heavy, looking at her from behind incredulous golden eyes.

"You fought against Mars, even with a smile on your face as you defied Rome, what else was I supposed to do!? You were the strongest mortal there was, we couldn't believe it, no one could. It was only in the moments after I ran you through that I realized you weren't a mortal." She admitted, being able to look anywhere but the Angel's eyes.

"It took stabbing me with a six foot sword for you to realize who I was!?" Cain demanded in almost pure hysterics. His eyes were wide as he simply could no believe what he was hearing.

Cain stood and swiped his hand across the air, effectively refilling the glass instantly, "Bellona." He announced, getting her attention. He managed to put on an incredulous smile as he thought of what else to say.

"You're a terrible mother."

 **A/N: What shall the little sister's name be?**


	5. Chapter 5 - Grave News

**Chapter 5 – Grave News**

A tall man with mesmerizing eyes of the purest gold, stood amidst a lonely graveyard with heavy rain pouring down all around him. He was sure that sooner or later there would be people coming for him, if they weren't already watching.

There he stood with his hands by his sides, completely unsure of what he should be doing in a situation like this. He'd been so heavily drowning in the emotions flowing through his head that he hadn't even sensed the familiar energy of the little girl that had come to be standing by his side.

"In loving memory of Sally Blofis, huh?" The girl announced with a sad sigh. Percy tore his eyes away from the grave of his mother for long enough to recognize the girl beside him. Like him, she too was seemingly impervious to the rain that came down around them. There was no doubts in his mind that she was his sister, but to what extent?

She read that gravestone as if there was no relation between them. "You don't know who that woman is?" Percy asked, looking back at the corroded marble slab. It was a nice grave but it was on it's own. Percy had to wonder whether Paul had passed away or was still kicking.

"Of course I do, she's our mother, how could I not know?" The girl answered as casually as ever. Percy stopped and just stared at her. A daughter of Poseidon AND their mother? So he was right, they were full-blooded brother and sister.

"I guess you really are my sister then. What happened to Paul? I doubt that she would have another child with dad while she was happy with Paul." Percy wondered with a sigh that sounded so alike that of the young sister.

"From what I've been able to gather, the baby they were having didn't quite make it. The stress tore them apart and eventually she found herself back in the arms of dad. I'm not one for seeking the details of such things, Percy." She announced with a shrug. She looked at the grave of a mother who she hadn't really gotten the chance to know, not like Percy did.

"And the name of Poseidon's youngest would be?" Percy kneeled down, crunching his hands together. Blue light flooded through the cracks in his fingers for a few seconds before he put down a few single flowers of pure blue light that shined on the gravestone beautifully in the rain that fell around them.

"Andromeda Jackson." She told him with immense pride crossing her tanned face. It made a lot of sense that she would be called Jackson.

"Sounds about right. Reminds me of a rusty old boat that once caused me a great deal of pain." Percy sucked his teeth at the memory of fighting Luke aboard that horrible ship of sorts.

"Yeah, I know. The things that you've done are still spoken about today, you're THE Percy Jackson who saved our world before going missing. It's not been easy living up to your reputation." The way that she had her hands on her hips had reminded him of the way that their mother used to scold him.

"Sorry for being a badass, I guess. I suppose that I'll go back to the camp then, see what's really changed in fifty years." The Angel sighed, not really all that content with wrapping up his business with visiting their mother. He'd fled Artemis under the guise of needing to rest after having that mountain drop on top of him but that simply wasn't the case.

"Fifteen Percy, it's been fifteen years for us." Andromeda told him, her voice reminding him that their timelines were vastly unsynchronized with one another.

"Fifteen... How old are you then?" Percy mused, only just realizing that she looked far older than that time would allow.

"Biologically? Fourteen." She answered.

"And chronologically?" Percy realized that he would have to ask her the correct, specific, questions if he was to ever get the correct, specific, answers that he sought.

"Fourteen." She grinned when Percy sighed heavily. So this must have been what Triton felt like, though, Percy felt like Triton was somewhat unfair to him while Percy had spent nearly all of his years exclusively in the spotlight. It was a hatred that Percy hardly blamed Triton for having.

"So you've literally only just joined the Hunt?" He asked, getting himself focused once again.

"Yep." She was a chirpy kind of happy, not something that a Demi-god who'd lived through a titanomacy would ever be able to maintain.

Silence fell upon them, the only thing to be heard was the raindrops, "Why?" He asked, finally breaking it.

"Why not?" She shrugged. It looked like she didn't really have a particular answer as to why she'd joined the hunt.

"I suppose that's as good an answer as any." Percy admitted after a moment of thought.

"It's what Thalia done, I saw no reason not to." They could heard the odd sound of a car engine, struggling to gun along in the downpour, it's cries only mostly being drowned out by the rain. No mortal would have ever been able to attain senses such as their, one a huntress, one an Angel.

"Thalia joined the hunt to avoid becoming the child of prophecy." Percy explained after another few moments, opening up the conversation once again. Andromeda found it incredibly easy to speak to him, despite not knowing him from anything other than legends, her whole life.

"Yeah, which made YOU the child of prophecy, and look where it's gotten you." The child laughed. The Angel had already taken in not just her words but the way that she spoke, her deliverance of speech was quite far ahead of that of a fourteen year old. She was smart, far smarter than most of Poseidon's children were. Why hadn't he inherited some of those brains? Not that it mattered, his intelligence was vastly superior to even most Gods now that he was an Angel.

"Famous?" He grinned.

"Yes, but-" Andromeda tried to answer, a frown already marring her face.

"Incredibly sought after by beings of all kinds?" Percy continued. His amusement was only fuelled further by the reaction that he was getting.

"Not what I was going to say, but-" Andromeda had clearly been trying to stay calm, not allowing herself to be caught by Percy's verbal trap.

"Undeniably attractive to all of the women?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Ew, gross." Andromeda's nose wrinkled at the mere thought of those she'd called her friends all probably fantasizing about the legend of her brother, it would only be made that much worse if he really did plan on following through with returning to the camp. All of those who called themselves his friends, those he fought with against those threats he defeated... They'd all become immortalized, they'd no doubt be able to sense something when he returned, it wouldn't take long for the rest of the camps to hear about the return of Percy Jackson.

"Oh yeah, forgot that you're fourteen, probably going to be eternally stuck in that stage of social awkwardness." Percy let his own laugh fill the air before looking around. Something was up but he couldn't figure out what, he knew that it wasn't an enemy though.

"You're an idiot, I can already tell." Andromeda scorned him. She held a small smile of content under her facade of irritation, enough to tell Percy that she was already warming up to him as the brother she'd never known.

"A near seventy year old immortal idiot that has enough power over all of my natural domains that I could topple Olympus on my own." The Angel opened his palm up ever so slightly but as if on command, a breeze flew around him, flaying his long brown coat in the wind.

"That's not true." Andromeda told him incredulously. That was just absurd! That would mean that not only could he take on all of the Olympians but also ever minor God and Goddess that called Olympus their home.

"It really probably is." He assured her with a smug yet knowing grin. It hadn't taken long before they were once again under a silence that neither of them felt awkward with.

"You take after dad a horrible amount." Andromeda pointed out.

"You take after mom a hilarious amount." Percy laughed.

"Percy..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Olympus will be impatient to see their long forgotten weapon. I'll go there when I feel like it. Should probably figure out where Cain is, I felt him arrive but he's since been... Doing something that I can't figure out."

"The idiot? The one that Lady Artemis doesn't like? He's somehow managed to find himself to a large cluster of nightclubs, that's what Annabeth told me."

"Ah, Annabeth..." Percy veered off with a cringe as he realized that if Annabeth had joined the hunt, it was far more likely that she'd done it in the hopes of finding Percy rather than actually consoling her loss and forgoing the company of men. It had been fifty years full of training that had completely taken his mind off of her, he hated to admit it, but he felt nothing for her, not romantically.

"Yeah, Annabeth. That's a can of worms that nobody wants to be around for. Best of luck big bro, I need to return to Lady Artemis, she's going to become impatient soon and I'm still a ways out." Andromeda shrugged. Percy watched her from the corner of his eyes as the daughter of Poseidon sent their mother's grave a last emotionless glance before turning away.

"Goodbye little Andy." Percy murmured, folding his arms as he slowly turned his gaze to the sky. The world was covered in skies of inky black and his connection to Lady Hemera was barely there in the dark of night.

"If you call me that, you'll be getting an arrow in an unsavoury place." She grumbled unhappily. Percy found that incredibly amusing. She really was an image of their mother, sweet and gentle but with a fierce and fiery side fuelled on by the wrath of the seas that raged inside their veins.

"It took me fifty years of the harshest training imaginable to become the level I am at archery, I doubt you'd be able to fire an arrow in a straight line if you're related to me." Percy laughed for the first time since arrived back to the world.

Cain's unique power flared up in Percy's vision, right in front of him in fact, with a bunch of flowers but he was made of pure light, the likes of which only Percy could even see, that much was evident when Andromeda merely smiled at him before continuing to walk away from the grave.

Silence fell upon the Angels in the graveyard before Cain was comfortable with loosing his shroud of light. "Green and blue, very nice." Percy murmured gratefully as he put the flowers next to the headstone. The rain was still falling around them which meant that they would stay fresh for quite some time.

"Yeah, well, they're the colour of the seas, I assumed she'd appreciate it, she went back for seconds after all." Cain whispered with the smallest smile on show at the somewhat inappropriate remark.

"Dude." Was all Percy managed before they both turned to walk away. Cain smelled like lingering alcohol.

"Sorry Rookie, I'm not great with mothers." Cain admitted with a shrug of his own.

"Is that why you're half way towards being tanked?" Percy raised an eyebrow, smelling the alcohol as that was the only sign that he'd even been drinking. Percy knew that if he could ever smell vast amounts of alcohol on Cain then he'd been seriously binging.

"More or less. I would be sound asleep by now if it wasn't for this damned angelic tolerance and metabolism we've got. Lady H also got us some new clothes, I think that she really wants us to be representing the role of 'Angels' now that we're so close to war." Cain told him slowly, he knew how much Percy seemed to dislike change, especially when it came down to his clothes. That was all the boy would ever wear when they went out on missions. Cain was mostly the same, except he owned clothes that weren't all made of leather.

"Relax dude, it's more or less the same as our old stuff, just... Bright." Cain shuddered slightly.

"Bright?" Percy laughed, unsure of whether or not Cain had used the right word.

"Oh yeah, check this out." Cain sighed before stepping a couple of feet away from Percy. The Son of Poseidon folded his arms, waiting patiently for Cain to change their clothes.

"Really?" Percy muttered under his breath when looked down to see what Hemera had wanted the two of them to wear. "Suppose it's better than robes. Let's go Cain, we need to visit my old camp first." Percy told him before taking the lead with disappearing into the dark of night.

 **Line Break**

The light of the sun bore down upon the camp that became home to Greek Demi-gods who were all oblivious to the overwhelming power of the two immortals high in the sky above them. "I sense a few Gods down there, or rather, a few immortals." Cain mumbled. He wasn't sure why they needed to go back to this camp but maybe it was just something Percy wanted to do.

"Chiron will be there, as will a few of the older campers if they were made immortal. Lady Artemis sometimes visits the camp with her hunt when they're close by." Percy explained. He was too busy fiddling with his new clothes to notice the look of aggravation cross Cain's face.

"The one who strung me up, LIKE A FUCKING PINATA!?" He roared angrily. Pure white light irradiated from him as he let himself vent, literally.

"That's the one, now calm yourself before I hurt you. Get your clothes in order as well, Hemera made these for us, the least you could do is wear them properly." Percy scolded his idiot partner before putting his new leather coat on. It was longer that the last one, reaching his shins, and it was impeccably made as were his new leather trousers and leather boots. The only difference to what he'd been wearing before, was that it was all completely white, pure white. Bright enough to light up the skies around them. It was why they'd had to appear in the midst of the suns rays so that they wouldn't be spotted.

"I am calm." Cain pouted, allowing himself, and his clothes, to dim down so that they weren't giving off light any longer. The leather was still brilliantly bright white, but it wasn't offending on the eyes, it just looked immaculately clean.

"Let's go then." Percy laughed, letting go of his hold over gravity. His body began to plummet towards the camp. It wasn't long before his ears picked up the signature sounds of panic and alarm coming from the campers. This was sure to be quite a trippy experience for them.

Percy changed his course of trajectory ever so slightly, enough so that he was falling straight towards the coast, the winds slowing him until he was stood a few feet atop the waves themselves. "Oh dear." Percy muttered only seconds before Cain came slamming into the ground in front of the beach, not one for caring about who or what he hit. No campers had been around his impact zone luckily.

"Down boy." Percy muffled his laugh before making his way over to Cain who was bearing his teeth at the rapidly approaching Goddess that they could both clearly tell was the one who had chased them down in the jungle only days prior.

"I don't like her Rookie." Cain whispered. His eyes began to flare with wisps of blue light flowing around them.

"What's wrong with him?" Artemis asked, hand already ready to reach for her bow at a moments notice. No others dared to come near the two unknown entities that had basically just blinded everyone. Chiron was nervously cantering over to them slowly.

"He doesn't like you." Percy shrugged. He seriously doubted that was really the reason that Cain was angry with Artemis.

"You broke my bottle of whisky, do you have ANY fuckin' idea how hard it is to get a bottle of whisky into a realm made of a light when our chief Goddess has been putting a portal ban on alcohol?" Cain breathed in heavily, forcing his eyes to stop spewing blue light. It had only taken a few seconds before he was back to being the old Cain. With a swipe in front of him, the air rippled and distorted to reveal a glass full of liquid in his hands.

"It's very hard little Goddess, but I suppose that I can forgive you this time." He told her before marching towards the big house, drinking his beer like it was the only thing that mattered, which to him it mostly did.

Artemis stared with wide eyes, never had she been spoken with such disrespect, and still be totally powerless to do anything about it.

"I'd apologize on his behalf but that would be redundant because he'll eventually start to respect you how you Gods expect to be respected." Percy shrugged. He was so different from the Perseus that she'd once known. This one cared little for the world that he'd been forced to leave behind, but fifty years to someone so fresh to immortality would do that.

"You have GOT to explain what's going on, Perseus." Artemis told him, looking on from behind neutral silver eyes.

"The fuck are you lookin' at?" They heard the distinct British voice call out in the distance.

"That aside, you owe some answers to the people you've left behind, and those who you've kept waiting to meet you, don't you think?" Artemis asked him. It was pretty clear from her heavy gaze that she wasn't really asking him though.

"I think that I'm with Cain on this one." He sighed before repeating the movement that the other Angel had, summoning a drink directly to his hand. He looked on from the corner of his eye as he took a heavy gulp from the fresh golden liquid, seeing how Artemis' eyes darted to his bare midsection for a fraction of a second. He would have apologized for not wearing a shirt underneath his leather coat, but it didn't look like Artemis had minded, quite the opposite in fact.

Was the Goddess Artemis coming down with a fever for Percy Jackson? The though struck his mind but he cast it away as nothing more than a random thought. "I guess it's time for an angelic Q and A. Lead the way, Goddess." He told Artemis with the most sauve grin that he could muster. He'd changed a lot over fifty years, he wanted these people to see that, it would be easier for those who were hung up on waiting for the same little boy to return.

He was no longer a boy, nor was he even still a man.

He was a Demon among Angels, and he was determined to show them. He was especially determined to show the Gods how much a Demon he'd become.

' _Especially Artemis_ ', he heard a whisper inside his mind. Why though?

On second thoughts, it wasn't all that much of a bad idea. Yeah, let's show Artemis the Demon.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Blowback

**Chapter 6 – The Blowback**

"I get the distinct feeling that no one is willing to address just how awkward this is?" Cain asked, throwing his feet up on the table he was sat at. He folded his hands with one another and looked around the faces of the Big House, smiling at everyone from his comfortable position.

It wasn't awkward for him, he didn't care, but he could still feel the room's general disposition.

"You don't fully understand the situation if you need to ask." Chiron told he calmly from the table that held not one but two Gods. Artemis and her hunt were visiting at the same time that Percy and Cain had decided to descend and shed some light on exactly what had really been happening. Dionysus was sat at the table between Artemis and Chiron, looking as bored as ever as he sipped his water.

"Isn't there any wine around here? What's the point in having a base population of demi-Greek-Godlings if there's no wine?" Cain asked, really hammering home the fact that his priorities hadn't changed. Percy would have sighed but at this point he was more than used to Cain's antics.

"Finally someone who has some sense." Dionysus spoke up, looking far more interested in the conversation than before

"This is a school above all else." Chiron answered.

"So?" Cain asked with thick confusion in his eyes. Granted it had been a couple of millenia since he'd been at school, but that wasn't the point.

"Cain for president." Dionysus coughed into his hand after seeing just how absurd the concept of no alcohol seemed to the angel.

"So there's no way that any of us would even allow alcohol to exist inside the barrier." Chiron responded, properly fulfilling the role as the protector of all campers. It was a little much by Cain's standards though.

He swiped his hand across the air in front of him, a tall glass of golden liquid rippled into existence right into his clutched fist. "That barrier needs work. Party God, want one?" Cain asked, snapping his fingers before getting a response. Dionysus' water turned into a deep garnet coloured wine.

"Give that man a Godhood!" Dionysus clapped in pure joy as he tasted the wine, and Gods it was actually wine.

"Funny thing is that I showed the same trick to a carpenter back in Rome… The punchline to that joke always gets me into a LOT of trouble, especially around churches." Cain sighed happily to himself, easily amused by his own antics.

"I forget that you're from Rome." Percy whispered, unwilling to say such things aloud in a camp of Greek Demi-gods. He'd discovered through Lady Hemera that there was a whole other side of life revolving around the Gods that neither he nor the other Demi-gods would have ever known about.

"Yeah, I try to forget." He grunted through gritted teeth, downing his beer. The glass refilled itself before he'd even managed to put it down on the table. Oh what perks there were to being essentially a matter manipulating super immortal.

"How did you do that? You seem to have almost corporeal control over reality but all I've really seen you do revolves around ultimate control of light." Artemis butted in, referring to Cain's ability to summon alcohol.

"If I told you, you'd never believe me." Cain laughed, taking another swig almost rhythmically. The man with the British accent had turned it into quite an art form by now.

"Try me." Artemis folded her arms, unimpressed by Cain on all accounts, mostly from how cocky and arrogant he was and yet still upstanding by all rights.

"Magic." He splayed his fingers out in what some might have called a varyingly sarcastic tone. There were a few moments of silence where everyone just stared and waited for him to elabourate.

"It's legitimately magic. This idiot has the magic power to bend reality to minor degrees that can't alter existences' constance mechanic. I know that sounds like a lot of big words, try not to read into it too much." Percy sighed. It was only recently that he really figured out that Cain's abilities to source alcohol seemed to be entirely magical. Laurette had a similar, unique, ability, so he couldn't help but wonder whether or not he had a vague magical ability as well.

"Maybe we should move on or we'll be here for a while and while I'm sure it would in theory be nice catching up with all of you-I don't want to do that." Percy announced, effectively stopping anyone who might tempted to try and buddy up with him. They'd been so quick to hide their faces in fear on that day when he emerged half dead on the battlefield, he wasn't about to just let them continue where they left off before that.

"You come back to our home, show us such disrespect, you disregard everything that you once stood for, but why?" Artemis asked. The question was entirely aimed at Percy though her eyes had darted towards Cain with disdain when she mentioned disrespect.

"Because I am no longer a pawn for Olympus. If my mistress tells me to fight for you then I will save those who can't help themselves, if my mistress tells me to fight against Olympus..." Percy told her, looking right at her with his undeniably powerful golden eyes. Cain sat in silence, his eyebrows raised in mild intrigue with how much hatred Percy had come to have for Olympus.

The black scar on his hand was the thing that marked him as a servant of Hemera but as it turned out, the mark was something that could only really fully take hold when there was nothing left for someone in their previous life.

For Percy's show of demonic power on his last day on Earth, those from Olympus must have shunned him in their own minds for him to have been taken by Hemera. It was true that such feelings could have been derived from initial shock, and that was what Cain expected to be the case as these people had never once stopped searching for their hero, even after he struck fear into their hearts.

"Perseus, no..." Artemis whispered under her breath, seeing where he was going. It was a dangerous route and she would not be spoken down to in this way.

"Then I will tear Olympus down with my bare hands." He told her, determination fluid in his tone.

"You would dare to insinuate war on Olympus!? Who are you to come back into our fold and push us into the dirt like we were mere ants!? We are GODS, you should know your place even if you have been away for fifty years in your own world!" She demanded, standing upright. Power began to irradiate out from where she stood at the opposite end of the Big House. Campers all around the room had begun to move away from her.

Percy stood up to match her, power naturally blasted outwards though he made a conscious effort to contain it. This attempt to explain things had gone extremely southbound. It had started so well, heck, he and Artemis had even seemed to be on friendly terms when they'd dropped down, how had it gone this badly so quickly? Was Artemis having an inferiority complex around them?

Before Percy could really understand what was going on, Cain was halfway towards Artemis, walking as slowly as he usually did. That casual strut still managed to make Percy's heart skip a beat. He knew that Cain was nearly all the time on top of his anger but sometimes there was something that could spark him, and he was still stronger than Percy.

"Know our place?" Cain asked, his tone was extremely dangerous. "We are Angels. We protect your world from threats that you Gods are too inferior to even see!" Cain's eyes became a swirling mass of golden rage.

"If we wanted to push you into the dirt like you were ants, we could. With incredible ease. Do not forget your place, _Goddess_ , for we are the Demons among Angels, and will not hesitate to bring your world to a standstill if you dare to step in our way." Each step Cain had taken the pressure in the building had risen in turn. It was at the point that most of the Campers were on their knees, unable to stand with only Artemis and Percy still being on their feet, the latter faring much better than the former.

"Your blatant disregard for our hierarchy cannot go unpunished, this will mean war!" Artemis spat, reaching for her bow.

"Then we will welcome war, but just remember this one thing, that when your kingdom is in ruin and it was felled by only two beings, right then I want you to remember that when we came here we came to help, but your ego turned your greatest allies into your impending doom." Cain's voice was so loud that it was tearing the building apart, tremors shook the ground with each syllable.

Artemis was about to unleash her godly form. None of the campers could even keep their heads up to see what was going on. She was so close but before she could Cain had simply flicked at the air in front of her, sending her crashing all the way through the end of the Big House and through half a dozen thick trees in the camp's forest.

"That was for my whisky." Cain muttered, "Let's go rook, they want a war, we'll bring their end." Cain ordered. Percy knew that there was no way that he was about to disobey Cain when he was in full war mode.

He doubted that his partner truly wanted to destroy Olympus, hell, he doubted Cain would even follow through with any kind of action, but his tolerance for Gods was almost zero, Percy kind of expected something like this to happen when Artemis and Cain's personalities clashed.

"You just flicked Artemis through a building, you really aren't giving this diplomatic relations thing that much effort." Percy muttered before they both disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

The two Angels were moving through a vast plane of existence that consisted solely of paths made from light. This was a way for them to instantly travel wherever they wished. "Go to their Roman Demi-God camp, I'll cause a distraction that will pull nearly all of the Olympians to my location, or it will after Artemis tells them what I just done. Once you're in New Rome, make your power slightly sensable, a Goddess will come to you, she's a direct ally to our Lady, she'll help you blend and hide in the capitol. From there we'll begin to find Nyx's agents." Cain told him. The plan made sense, so there really was a reason that he'd started a fight with Artemis.

Percy nodded before floating off through a different path. Cain knew exactly where he was going. The Alewife Queens. This was his first encounter with the Olympians, it was only fitting that he'd be here when the Olympians figured it all out.

He arrived just outside, not taking him long at all to find himself at the bar. The same barmaid was still there, fifteen years later. "Christ, it's all craft beer." He groaned, quoting exactly what he'd said fifteen years ago. The woman behind the bar slowly looked up, staring right into his deep golden eyes. Recognition flittered across her face.

"Afraid so," He nodded, "I can never decide what to have." He smiled at her. She couldn't believe it, fifteen years and he didn't look a day older.

"Travelling has been good to you, you haven't aged a single bit mister golden eyes." She smiled before pulling a pint of the same beer that she'd chosen for him last time.

"Yeah, a stress free environment, earl grey, all that caboose." He muttered to himself before taking a sip of the beer.

"So what made you stay in the bar? You must not just pull pints any-more, surely?" He asked, allowing himself to have a conversation with her before he flared his power and welcomed the Olympians to the fight.

"No, not quite. It's actually my bar. I took over it after a conversation with a mysterious weary traveller. One who got himself wrapped up in the visions of some pretty uptight people." She told him with a wink.

"Wait… What?" He asked, looking at her in deadpan.

"Please, you really think that a bar this close to Olympus wouldn't have someone like me running the place?" She asked with a slight giggle.

"He hadn't noticed it fifteen years ago and he certainly hadn't noticed it this time but once she said it, there was a faint but distinct smell about her. She was immortal.

"Well how about that? I guess you won't mind me doing this then." He smiled, allowing his power to flare for no more than a second.

"What the fuck was that?" She asked in major alarm. She'd been able to feel it which was fairly impressive as it was really a call out for the Gods.

"Oh, you know, just letting my new best friends know where I am." He smiled mischievously.

One by one, the Gods of Olympus walked through the door to the bar in full battle armour.

"What on Earth have you done, traveller?" The barmaid asked, looking on in shock and confusion.

"For your assault on a Goddess, we've named you an enemy to Olympus, you'll either be coming with us quietly or we'll beat you into the ground and drag your broken body to the throne room for judgement, your call." Ares spoke, holding a huge sword over his shoulder with relative ease.

Cain stood up, finishing his drink in one go, "You should really leave work for the day sweetie." Cain winked at the barmaid who scowled at him.

"You're paying for any and all damages." She told him before leaving through the back.

"So which one of you upstart Gods wants to be put down a peg or two? I can promise you that your current course of action is going to be extremely painful." Cain grinned, welcoming the fight they wanted to bring.

That poor barmaid, she'd only met him twice and now he was about to wreck the place.

 **A/N: Woah! Four updates in like a week, what's going on? ;) Review?**


	7. Chapter 7 - When In Rome

**Chapter 7 – When In Rome**

 **A/N: Yo, not dead yet. It's been a very busy time for me recently, hence the silence. Apologies.**

New Rome. Home to countless numbers of Demi-Gods who had once been in the dark about their Greek counterparts on the other side of the country.

The tall raven haired Angel walked through the streets of the city, unphased by the powerful wards concealing the place from anyone who didn't share some form of divine blood. He had been able to materialize in the middle of the city without even having to think about it but for almost anyone else they would have had to fight their way across the bastard river out the front of the city walls and get permission to come inside from the city guards.

As he walked on through he found that a certain presence had detected his arrival and was closing in on him. He knew who it was; Terminus, the God of borders or something that Percy equally didn't care much about.

"YOU! HOW DID YOU GET IN!" The God that Percy had sensed seemed to have appeared out of thin air, materialized as a statuesque bust. His eyes were blaring red and blue like that of police sirens as if to match the actual sirens that were sounding off somewhere in the closest building.

Where even was he to warrant such a massive defensive procedure? It looked vaguely like the forum. Which he realized was most likely where he'd actually found himself. "Chill out stoney, I was sent here by my masters. If I was here to cause harm you'd all already be dead." Percy responded with a defensive stature, crossing his arms and waiting for Terminus to respond.

A tall slender woman walked out from behind him, she had flowing brown hair and tanned skin that matched his own. She must have only been in her late twenties but damn she looked incredibly fine. He could tell that she was sporting a very athletic body underneath the gold plates of armour that covered her. Her outfit was completed by two swords made of Olympic gold that matched her armour. They were tucked away just beneath the seems of a silky purple cape.

"Terminus stand down, I know this man." She chimed in, instantly silencing the God who vanished on her words. He might not have liked it but he respected the patron Goddess of the city.

After he'd completely vanished, she turned her attention back to Percy, "It's been a long time, I bet you don't even remember me. I ran this city fifteen years ago back when we were all at war. You saved my life... And you didn't even realize I was there." She said wistfully.

"Enlighten me." Percy responded, not even sure what she was talking about. She'd been looking just slightly offset of where he was stood, as if she was vividly reliving the memory.

Her eyes returned from her visage and locked with his, Gaia, she and all of her Giants were about to run us through, they were about to well and truly ring Rome out, then a small legion of Greeks appeared on the battlefield, followed by the Gods. You were leading the charge. It was like you were possessed, you tore through literally everything that came your way, stopping me from being killed by a giant when you ripped out it's throat with your hands and a bronze sword." She told him, being very sure of her words, knowing that deep down this was definitely the man that saved her life and disappeared.

"I was in that throne room on Olympus you know, I watched everything as you refused immortality from the Gods and left us all. I didn't even know your name and never got the chance to thank you." She continued, musing slightly as she turned and started to walk away.

Percy didn't need any instruction to know that now was his time to follow and listen to what she had to say, even if it turned out that she didn't actually have anything good to say.

"You've been gone for fifteen years and you come casually walking into our city with no prior announcement. You cannot possibly even know how much has changed in our way of life, why are you here, Perseus?" She said his name with a strange tone, one of intrigue if Percy didn't know any better. It was clear that the Romans had been brought in on the manhunt for the saviour of Olympus as well.

Percy looked around with a slight huff. He was meant to be meeting a contact that also served Lady Hemera, was this woman who he was looking for? "Taco Tuesdays?" He asked with a well hidden grin.

He was here walking around New Rome with a beautiful woman while Cain was presumably in a bar fight with half of Olympus. Which would be undeniably very much up Cain's alley.

"No, our lifestyle didn't change around tacos." She glared. "A lot of us ascended after the defeat of Gaia, most were due to the God's attempting to broaden their searching power in trying to find you but some of us actually were given stations. I became a guardian of New Rome, which wasn't so bad as it turns out, I mean, I'm thirty four and look like a twenty year old." She smiled, never taking her eyes away from his.

"I'm seventy." Percy shot back with a slight grin.

"Touché old man." The woman smiled. Percy could suddenly feel a presence make itself known as another woman approached her. This one had shorter brown hair and wore a typical Roman legionnaire's set of armour. The only thing missing was a grand shield on the arm, this woman was definitely a Goddess, an older Goddess from a time long before.

"You're the Angel?" The new arrival asked, looking on with authority.

"An Angel without wings but one nonetheless." Percy nodded, frowning towards the sky. He knew that she was always listening but for the love of everything Hemera really wasn't giving him any clues as to how he'd get his wings.

"My name is Bellona, I am-" She began but was quickly cut off by the raven Angel. He put his hand up in front of her to stop her.

"I know. I guess you're the contact Cain told me about, but I-" Percy lost his train of thought as his eyes turned pure white. He looked onwards with a completely deadpan face not registering any kind of presence inside his mind.

"Um?" The younger Goddess hummed, looking towards Bellona for any kind of insight into what just happened to Percy. It was almost like a robot had it's mind wiped.

Before long the light faded from Percy's eyes and his expression seemed to warm. "That dumbass actually did it. Excuse me for a few minutes would you? Thanks." Percy smiled. Neither Goddess got the chance to answer him as his body was covered in light and promptly vanished.

 **Line Break**

A small bar in Manhattan had been turned upside down. Gods and Goddesses littered the room, blood everywhere. The occasional rhythmic breathing of a dozen unconscious deities could be heard. Cain was slumped against the door frame, smoking a cigarette, covered in blood, both that of the Gods and his own.

The bar was totally trashed, tables were broken, chairs smashed, the whole service bar had been broken in two where Ares had been forced through it. Athena was buried by a pile of tables. Hermes had been beaten through the ceiling and was occasionally being slapped by the ceiling fan that was barely still attached.

Percy appeared in the middle of the room, looking around in mild awe at the absolute carnage that had happened. "Not bad, oh, damn, they did a number on you." Percy grinned, looking at the only conscious person in the building.

Cain grunted with entertainment, "They brought swords and spears, cheaters." He said, breathing out a cloud of smoke.

"And you didn't use a sword? This place is totalled." Percy asked.

"I was under the impression that it was going to be a fair fist fight." Cain pouted, pulling himself off the floor with a tremendous effort needed.

"Against a dozen Olympians?" Percy raised a single eyebrow with amusement. Cain was a dumbass sometimes.

"Yeah, trust me, the look on their faces when I punched Apollo through a wall, they totally never saw it coming." Cain laughed for a second before clutching his sides. "They really did a number on me, I think I've cracked a rib. Definitely broke most Ares, and Hermes... And all of them." Cain laughed again at himself before the pain came back once more.

"Race you to New Rome." Cain announced before disappearing, he promptly stepped forwards now in New Rome right where he'd felt a cluster of strong presences. Two Gods, that was most likely where Percy had been before.

"I desperately need to have a bath." He said, suddenly finding himself face to face with a beautiful Goddess, standing right next to his mother of all people. "Oh for fucks sake, why are you always ruining my fun?" He groaned.

"I didn't say anything." She glared.

"Yeah but... You murdered me, you filicidal bitch." Cain glared. His eyes got brighter slightly at the prospect that he might have been able to get a rise out of her. Percy materialized next to them,

"The bathhouse is definitely not your worst idea." He agreed, missing the tension between Cain and Bellona.

"Hey, I'm a Roman too." Cain told the younger Goddess, clearly trying to begin something between them. She looked on, waiting for him to say something else, clearly she wasn't impressed yet.

"My name is Reyna, the guardian of New Rome. Don't be idiots in this city and we might just be able to get along." She told them sternly.

"Reading you loud and clear. Come on Rook, we'd best relax before the oncoming storm. It seems that these two are our only support right now." Cain told Percy as the two of them marched onwards to what Cain believed were the bath houses.

Percy didn't mind, he had a point after all. The Olympians were no doubt going to come knocking on their door for round two, and they wouldn't be nice about it either, not after Cain systematically beat them senseless without even using any weapons. He got some damage back but what he'd received from the Gods was already starting to heal.

They were going to have a lot on their hands in the next few days so perhaps relaxing wouldn't be so bad after all. Besides, both of the Goddesses they'd walked away from were pretty easy on the eyes.

He'd never hear the end of it if he ended up sleeping with Bellona, Cain's mother of all people.

Worth it.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Calm Before The Storm

**Chapter 8 – The Calm Before The Storm**

Two Angels were in a small private bathhouse hidden within the confines of New Rome. They were being actively concealed by the presence of their secret allies; two Goddesses of the Roman pantheon. Bellona, the Goddess of War, who as it turned out was Cain's mother, making Cain a once Roman Demi-god, and the other, Reyna, the now patron Goddess of New Rome itself.

There was nothing that happened in New Rome that Reyna didn't know about or have some degree of influence or sway over, such as the two Angels that were currently hiding from the Gods of Olympus after Cain obliterated and humiliated them in a bar fight in Manhattan.

"We might have been able to find at least a single agent of darkness by now if you hadn't punched all of the Gods." Percy sighed, he wasn't aching anymore as his body had healed up after about an hour in the baths that felt more like a spa treatment centre.

It must have belonged to either Reyna or another deity of New Rome as it was lavishly decorated with purple and gold drapes that hung over finely crafted brickwork. That and it wasn't facing the street, so it was definitely a private bath.

"Yeah but… It was so worth it. I know you'd have done the same thing in my position. You should have seen the look on their faces when I manhandled Ares." Cain grinned. He ran a hand through his beard for a moment as if in though, "Shame Aphrodite decided to leave when the fighting was done. I told her that I wasn't going to harm a non-combatant, I would have loved to-" Cain was cut off mid sentence as Percy knew exactly what he was going to say. He'd knew him better than anyone after finding out about his mother.

"By the way, Roman Demi-god, huh? Bet you'd thought I'd forgotten about that." Percy laughed.

Cain looked at him with an estranged look, "Oh right! Sorry, was thinking about Aphrodite. Yeah, that bitch crooning around the city somewhere is my mother." Cain grumbled.

"She stabbed me in the back during a battle where I was about to beat the shit out of Ares, or rather… Mars by then." Cain explained. With a sigh he held up his hand, pointing towards the mark on his chest and lower throat. "She killed me because I was marked, because you know, why wouldn't she kill me for being marked?" Cain muttered before reaching over to the side of the pool and grabbing the chalice of wine he'd materialized earlier in the day.

"Never did ask Lady Hemera about the others." Percy mused for a moment before he pulled himself free of his reverie. "I'm going to prepare myself. I'd be surprised if the day ends and this war doesn't start." Percy sighed.

Cain merely closed his eyes and sunk back down into the pool. He raised his wine cup but offered no words, not that Percy needed any at this point.

He quickly put on his brilliant white clothes and wandered out into the busy streets of New Rome. He didn't know quite the extent of Reyna's governing power but she'd assured him that while they were there, she could mask their unique feeling from the Gods.

He didn't even know if the Gods could actually feel himself and Cain, he assumed they could otherwise Cain would have had to have done something magnificently stupid to have got their attention at that bar over in Manhattan.

As he walked on through the main streets, he garnered a few odd looks but not many at all. It seemed that none of them particularly cared what a leather-clad Angel was doing in their city. As he started to nose around a few of the stalls he felt the presence of the Goddesses following him, watching from a distance.

Perhaps they were sizing him up, seeing whether or not he really could hold strength enough to fight against the darkness. He wondered whether or not that might be the case but he didn't know much about their enemy, so he doubted that a few agents of Hemera would know more than himself.

He found himself at the blacksmith, looking through the variety of weapons laid out in front of the stalls, even casting his gaze further inside the workshop to see their residential blacksmith hammering away at a piece of red hot gold on the anvil.

"You." Percy heard the voice of a Goddess that had been following him through the city.

"Me." Percy nodded, not granting her his gaze. He felt her shift around him before finally he was face to face with Reyna. Her scent played heavily on his senses.

"Will you fight me on the battlefield?" She asked, staring at him as he wondered what might have spurred her towards asking such a request of him.

"Why?" He asked her incredulously, "If I were to ever fight anyone for real then my divine light would probably incinerate them unless they were agents of darkness or Angels." He told her, not liking the prospect that she may in fact be quite stubborn and not give up on the chance to fight him.

"I'm tougher than you think. Both myself and Bellona have exceptional battle senses, I think we can give you Angels a run for your money." Reyna grinned, seeing the desired effect her words had on Percy.

"Perhaps. Though I don't think it would be a good idea to fight our only allies in this entire city. Olympus will figure out that we're here sooner or later and I doubt we'll have found what it is we were sent here to find, not by then at least." He reasoned, teetering away form possibly hurting the Goddess in front of him.

"Oh, hey, who's the augur of this camp?" He asked her right out of the blue.

"Um. His name is Octavian, why does it matter?" She asked, leaning against the wall and watching Percy through narrowed eyes for a few long moments of silence. She never got an answer as Percy's attention was focused elsewhere.

"Hello." Percy greeted the blacksmith that had finally come to the outside of the workshop. He pulled a piece of paper from within his long white coat before handing it to the smithy, "Can you create this for me? I need it as soon as possible." He smiled.

Reyna was intrigued, what on earth could Percy be wanting a Demi-god blacksmith to create that he wouldn't have access to himself in whatever realm he was from?

"Massive, thick, heavy..." The blacksmith paced the front entrance to the workshop as he muttered about the design paper that Percy had given him. "And FAR too rough." He continued.

Percy stood to the side with his arms folded and a polite smile across his features. Reyna remained silent, what the hell did he want made?

"This is much too big to be called a sword." After one more length of the shop he stopped and looked up at his possible new client, "It's like a heap of raw iron… You could slay a dragon with this!" The blacksmith laughed incredulously all the while thinking about the intricacies of even attempting to forge it.

"Can it be done?" Percy asked, once again with a polite smile on show.

The smith thought about it, "I'd say that only my father can say for certain whether or not it can be done off the top of his head, but… As a son of Vulcan I'll give it my best shot." He finally answered.

"Please forward any fees for labour and materials to the augur of New Rome. He's kindly agreed to pay for any and all expenses I might accrue in search of my new weapon. Grazie." Percy waved as he left the workshop and followed the flow of people all bustling down the streets.

He could feel Reyna following him. She couldn't help the outbreak of the smile that flowed across her lips. So he did remember his time before the great war that he helped to stop. Octavian never liked the Greeks, much less Percy, this was a sure sign that despite the Angel having spent fifty odd years away in another realm, that he did actually remember them.

All of a sudden there was a mass rushing of the people in the streets. They all started to head in one direction, hundreds of voices all calling out to one another in excited shouting.

"And what might be happening?" Percy asked, standing far back enough that none of the stampeding Demi-gods were at risk of colliding with him.

"Only two things come to mind. One of them being that the Gods have decided to show up, but I would have felt that, or two…" Reyna stopped and looked off into the distance as she tried to figure out what it might be, "It's possible that my divine family members are fighting, or about to." She reasoned with a frown.

"Your divine family members." Percy looked at her in confusion.

"Both of you Angels are quite stupid. Think back Percy, to long before you took up a higher calling." She prompted him to remember the things he'd done as a Demi-god. There was a good minute where all he could do was draw a blank before it suddenly dawned on her.

"You're a daughter of Bellona, which means that she's, obviously, your mother, but also that Cain is your brother." Percy grinned, "Oh man, he's never forgive me if I slept with you." Percy laughed.

Reyna raised a brow and was about to retort but he'd cut her off, "I should probably stop them before the whole of Olympus comes to investigate, if they haven't already." He sighed.

 **Line Break**

Percy and Reyna arrived at the fields of battle where all of the Roman Demi-gods performed their war games. In the very centre of the fields, surrounded on all sides by the numbers of the legions all watching avidly, were the unmistakable clothes belonging to the other Angel that Percy had arrived with.

Cain and Bellona were standing in a face off, no doubt forced into this situation by Cain's stubbornness. "No, why would I need a weapon?" They both heard Cain ask quite loudly. He was stood there holding nothing but a glass with golden liquid.

"How the hell did he get that in here?" Reyna asked in aggravated wonder.

"He has a hold over reality when it comes down to materializing small objects or things in general, so he can summon more beer whenever he wants." Percy explained as the two of them carried on walking towards the front of the ranks that were all watching avidly. They couldn't wait to see two immortals beat the crap out of each other.

"Fine, do as you will, just don't be sore when you can't hurt me." Bellona responded, brandishing a longsword and banded shield. She took stance and readied herself to rush the Angel who appeared as though he couldn't care less.

Cain downed the last of his beer before casually tossing the glass away. It faded from reality before it ever hit the ground. "Funny," He said with a growing grin, "I was just about to say the same thing to you." He responded. His eyes glowed with wisps of blue light as it became clear that he wasn't going to go easy on her just because she was his mother.

"Why are they doing this?" Reyna sighed in desperation.

"You know that she murdered him right? Like, that's the whole reason that our mistress was able to claim Cain. It's a pretty messed up story, but one that started with the utter humiliation of Mars as it goes." Percy explained. Reyna looked at him for a moment before it became clear that she couldn't care less.

"Hey, do you have any wine stashed away in your private living space? I don't share Cain's ability to summon alcohol." Percy asked, looking right into Reyna's eyes.

"My. Are you asking me out for a drink?" Reyna asked with a grin.

"No. Unless you say yes, in which case I am." Percy responded. The two of them started to walk away from the family squabble in the middle of the battlefield, Percy saw no reason to stop the two of them form duking it out, he was sure that Bellona could hold her own and Cain wasn't stupid enough to use too much of his power or Olympus would come knocking.

He decided that today they would rest and tomorrow they would go and find the agent of darkness that they were sent to neutralize. Besides, he was quite interested in seeing where his night would go.

 **A/N: I'm starting to get some order and regularity back into my hobbies, which is obviously writing, so here's hoping that I'm back for good. Enjoy.**


End file.
